Quotes about Unionists

Ulysses S. Grant

There would never have been secession if demagogues had not swayed non-slaveholding voters and naïve young soldiers to believe that the North was filled with cowards, poltroons, and negro-worshippers.

One of the puzzles of American Civil War history has been how the poor whites of the South (who provided most of the military manpower that fought and died in the Civil War) were persuaded to fight against a much stronger, more highly industrialized, and more affluent few, that had many more soldiers. One of the main reasons, though difficult for us to understand today, was that the Southern leadership actually persuaded the Southerners that men from the North were cowards and lacked the character, virtue or will to fight. The general “party line” of the South was that one Southern solder was worth more than 5 Northern Soldiers,

William H. Seward

The U.S. government should deny to disunionists any new provocation or apparent offence, while it would enable the Unionists in the slave states to maintain with truth and with effect that the alarms and apprehensions put forth by the disunionists are groundless and false.

Seward, the newly appointed Secretary of State was extremely concerned that if the radical direction that many of the Southern States were moving in turned into a Civil War, that the Union should not be seen as the precipitating initiator. His policy was followed and the secessionist extremists, not so politically sensitive, attacked Fort Sumter and became the initiator of the war so far as public opinion was concerned domestically and internationally. It was very important for the Union effort that the Confederates by seen as a group of radicals rebelling against the authority of a legitimate state. If that was the case, any effort to aid or help the South could be seen as an unfriendly act of war against the United States. Conversely, the South would have liked to be seen as an independent nation, no longer connected to the United States and entitled to diplomatic relations and foreign trade with all other nations. But the attack on Fort Sumter made that position much harder to maintain.

Katie Hopkins

We are not a nation of strikes and inaction. We will not be preached at by militant unionists with a crap whippet and a chip on each shoulder.

Charles Sumner

More than one person was appointed provisional governor who could not take the oath of office required by act of Congress. Other persons in the same predicament were appointed in the revenue service. The effect of these appointments was disastrous. They were in the nature of notice to rebels everywhere, that participation in the rebellion was no bar to office. If one of their number could be appointed governor, if another could be appointed to a confidential position in the Treasury Department, then there was nobody on the long list of blood who might not look for preferment. And thus all offices from governor to constable were handed over to a disloyal scramble. Rebels crawled forth from their retreats. Men who had hardly ventured to expect their lives were now candidates for office, and the rebellion became strong again. The change was felt in all the gradations of government, whether in States, counties, towns, or villages. Rebels found themselves in places of trust, while the true-hearted Unionists, who had watched for the coming of our flag and ought to have enjoyed its protecting power, were driven into hiding-places. All this was under the auspices of Andrew Johnson

President Andrew Johnson had been impeached by the House of Representatives and was being tried in by the Senate. A majority of the Senators voted for conviction but the vote was 1 short of the two-thirds that were needed. Johnson remained in office. One of the major accusations against Johnson was that he had appointed Southern rebels to positions.

James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon

Rally round me that I may shatter our enemies and their hopes of a republic flag. The Union Jack [British Flag] must sweep the polls. Vote early. Work late.

It did sweep the polls. The Protestant Unionists won 40 seats; Sinn Fein and the Nationaists won only 6 each.

Henry Clay

From developments now being made in South Carolina, it is perfectly manifest that a party exists in that state seeking a dissolution of the Union.

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.

Martin McGuinness

If the British government is prepared to say that the Unionists will not have a veto over British government policy and that guns, vetoes and injustices will all be left outside the door, then there is no good reason why talks cannot take place in an appropriate atmosphere.

Dick Spring

If I felt we had alienated the Unionists, it would worry me because we've spent a great deal of time trying to open up discussion and dialogue with the Unionist Parties.

Unionists Quotes