Union Dissolution Quotes
In what turned out to be a tragic prediction of things to come:
Jackson was reacting to the claimed right of South Carolina to nullify Federal tariffs and other Federal laws.
In many respects, it is amazing that secession did not take place earlier.
There were some Southern Apologists who during the Jim Crow era and even into modern times, argued that slavery and the desire to maintain that was a minor cause of the Civil War but succession came about over differences in philosophy of government. This document by Mississippi made it perfectly clear why they favored succession: Slavery and their desire to maintain that institution.
This was more than 15 years before South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. The idea of secession existed long before Abraham Lincoln was elected to the Presidency.
Given the time, Mill’s view on the colonies were appreciated by few Englishmen, but turned out to be exactly predict the British reality a century later.
The last lines of the editorial were tragically accurate in predicting the Civil War. The more the slavery question was debated in the nation, the more polarized the country became. If the South would persist in trying to curtail men’s freedom and maintain slavery, the slaves had the same right of revolution and insurrection as was established in the American Revolution. That was the view of most abolitionists. Southern slave holders, feared an armed slave rebellion more than anything else, and observed that debating the issue of slavery was just riling up Blacks and whites and would instigate such armed revolutions. The Southern solution was to cease debating the slavery question. The Northern solution was to end slavery. Neither side would accept the solution of the other and the Civil War ensued.
Fortunately he was wrong, but the threat of a breakup of the American Union intimidated most members of Congress to avoid anything that would offend a state or group of states. Thus slavery became more and more entrenched till it exploded into the Civil War. At the time the issues of contention included the fact that Louisiana was primarily Roman Catholic and ALL other states were majority Protestant. The territory functioned under French Law—the Napoleonic Code, while all the other states operated under the English Common Law (even today this is so), and there was concern with the French and Creole language and whether the Creoles would fit into American Culture.
This is a fascinating quotation of the then leader of the Mormons. Historically, it shows us that many from the North, primarily to avoid the military draft of the Civil War, left their homes and emigrated to California, Washington and Oregon. In doing so, many passed through Salt Lake City and many became Mormons and stayed. These “Copperheads” included a serious peace movement at the time along with racists who didn’t want to risk their lives over the issue of slavery. Next we see the affinity that the Mormons had for the Copperheads. Actually, although the Mormons did not own slaves the church leadership had not been, well before the civil war, opposed to slavery and some were supportive of the institution. See {629157} and {629154}. Note the hostility that Young had for Abolitionists. At that time, a large proportion of the Abolitionists were religious Protestant laymen and laywomen and ministers. They were very outspoken and used writing and the media of the time to make their case. In almost all cases they also opposed polygamy and from a sexual morality point of view, saw it as little different from the slave owners sexual exploitation of his female slaves. Moreso than any other issue, polygamy was damaging the Mormon image amongst other Americans, It was the Abolitionists who were principle drivers of this negative image problem of the Mormons, So Young resented these “busybodies” and empathized with the Southerners not because he personally favored slavery, but they were both “victims” of the same set of do gooders. Young had a very limited narrow view of the rest of the country, and completely overestimated the prospects of the Southern Rebels.
