Sectional Conflict Quotes

…moderates were inexorably sucked into the vortexes of the sectional passions that led to the war. [American Civil War]

I never was an Abolitionist, not even what could be called anti slavery, but I try to judge fairly & honestly and it become patent to my mind early in the rebellion that the North & South could never live at peace with each other except as one nation, and that without Slavery.

At the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, African slavery existed in twelve of the thirteen States. Slaves are recognized as property, and as a basis of political power, by the Federal Compact, and special provisions are made by that instrument for their protection as property…. the opponents of slavery shall arrest its further expansion, and by Congressional Legislation exclude it from the common Territories of the Federal Government, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction…. Abraham Lincoln--he stands forth as the representative of the fanaticism of the North, which, for the last quarter of a century, has been making war upon the South, her property, her civilization, her institutions and her interests; as the representative of that party which overrides all constitutional barriers, ignores the obligation of official oaths, and acknowledges allegiance to a higher law than the Constitution, striking down sovereignty and equality of the states, and resting its claims to popular favor upon the one dogma—the equality of the races white and black.

Saying slavery was the cause of secession isn't politically correct; it's correct correct.

The election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency is the first triumph of a great political revolution. It does not mean evil to any section of the country. It is not only regular and lawful, but is necessary to restore the old spirit and policy of the country, and give peace to the land. It comes hard for those Southern extremists to be driven from power without any hope of returning to it; but they will submit to necessity and become less dangerous, for the sentiment of the Southern people will constrain them to good behavior. Mr. Lincoln will be inaugurated peacefully, and we believe confidently that his administration will reproduce the era of good feeling.

Shall I tell you what this collision means? They who think it is accidental, unnecessary, the work of interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means the United States must and will, sooner or later, become entirely a slave-holding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation.

I have fought against the people of the North because I believed they were seeking to wrest from the South its dearest rights. But I have never cherished toward them bitter or vindictive feelings, and I have never seen the day when I did not pray for them.

The real difference of interests, lay not between large and small, but between the Northern and Southern states. The institution of slavery and its consequences formed a line of discrimination.

There is an inevitable conflict between different sections of The Constitution and also between The Constitution and certain values.

You or any fair man, looking back on the history of our own country for the past forty years must admit, that the Press has gradually intensified he feelings of mutual jealousy and hatred between the North and the South till war not only resulted, but was bound to result. You see yet the Press of each Section, instead of healing the gap, is vigorously widening it.

It is not to be disguised, that a war has broken out between the North and the South. - Political and commercial men are industriously striving to restore peace: but the peace, which they would effect, is superficial, false, and temporary.

The English-Speaking race will dominate the earth a hundred years from now, if the sections do not get to fighting with each other.

Mr. President, the cause of this great discontent in the country, the cause of the evils which we now suffer and which we now fear, originates chiefly from questions growing out of the respective rights of the different States and the unfortunate subject of slavery.

waving the bloody shirt

The great danger to our general government is the great southern and northern interests of the continent being opposed to each other. [The states are] divided into different interests not by their difference in size ... but principally from their having or not having slaves.

The strongest argument against this unnatural war upon negro slavery in one section by another of the same common country, is that it inevitably drives to disunion of the states, embittered with all the vengeful hate of civil war.

This attempt to excite an insurrection among the slaves is one of the natural results of the agitation of the slavery question, originated and so persistently kept up by designing politicians, both of the North and the South for partisan purposes. It can be traced to no other cause, and unless the people of both sections rise in the majesty of their strength and put an end at once to this mischievous agitation, the page that records the bloody events of the last two days, will be but a preface to the history of a civil war in which the same scenes will be re-enacted on a larger scale, and end in the dissolution of our glorious Union.

One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended.

There are courageous and honest men enough in both sections to fight. There is no question of courage involved. The people of both sections of this Union have illustrated their courage on too many battlefields to be questioned. They have shown their fighting qualities shoulder to shoulder whenever their country has called upon them; but that they may never come in contact with each other in fratricidal war, should be the ardent wish of every true man and honest patriot.

The combatants on the two sides fought with equal skill and spirit. The North prevailed, because it had more men and more military and industrial resources, and because it was fighting for Union and against slavery.

When a nation has just emerged from the throes of a great civil warfare, where section was arrayed against section, class against class, two things are to be done: First, the work of reconstruction is to be effected; Secondly, a willingness for the proper acceptance of the issue's decision is to be created.

The Mexican war was a political war, and the administration conducting it desired to make party capital out of it.

The contest is not between the North and South as geographical sections … nor between the people of the North and the people of the South, for our relations have been pleasant …. But the real contest is between the two forms of society which have become established …. Society is essentially different from government … and within this government two societies had become developed as variant in structure and distinct in form as any two beings in animated nature.