I would like to begin a discussion of The American Civil War with an excerpt from the Richmond Examiner in 1862.
It would be wise to attempt to understand what it was that motivated the south to secede from the United States so quickly after the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. The following excerpt is scary and difficult to mentally digest, but to get a grasp upon what the causes of the war were we need to see it in their light and judge it on their terms. Only then can we see the hatred that existed towards the north and its federal institutions. It is based upon racism of the worst kind, not only of the negro race but of all freedom loving people. I have long believed that the root cause of all wars is based upon the belief that we are cleaner than those people. It builds up into a hatred that we find difficult to understand. During the war General Robert E. Lee did not refer to the northern armies as an army but as “those people over there”. At the surrender at Appomattox Lee was indignant that General Grant had a negro secretary writing out the terms of surrender, that is until Grant told him that the secretary was a Seneca Indian.
It should take you about 10 minutes to read this article from the Richmond Examiner:
SOUTHERN HATRED OF FREE INSTITUTIONS.
Though last, not least, the new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutions-African slavery as it exists among us, the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture, and of the present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated-this as the rock upon which the old Union would split. He was right. What was conjecture with him is now a realized fact. But, whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood, and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him, and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution, were that the enslavement of the African race was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent, and pass away.
Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a government built upon it, when the storm came, and wind blew, it fell. Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, on the general truth, that the negro is NOT equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his-natural , and normal condition. This, our new Government, is the FIRST it the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth.
The negro, by nature or the curse of Canaan, is fitted for the condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of a building, lays the foundation with the proper material-the granite-then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material by nature best fitted for it, and by experience we know it is best, not only for the superior but the inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them.
The great objects of humanity are best attained when conformed to His laws and decrees in the formation of governments, as well as in all things else. Our Confederacy is founded on principles in strict conformity with these laws. THIS STONE, WHIGH WAS REJECTED BY THE BUILDERS, IS BECOME THE CHIEF STONE OF THE CORNER OF OUR NEW EDIFICE.
These people are now warring against that principle, and attempting to govern us as King George did; it is, therefore, an unnatural and irrational and a suicidal war, and you cannot count upon its duration. When a people becomes mad, there is no telling what they will do. It is so in the history of other empires; it was so in France. They say we are revolutionists; they call us rebels. I think it will be a revolution before it is over; but if a change of government makes revolution, the revolution is at the North. I tell you the revolution is at the North. There is where constitutional liberty has been destroyed; and if you wish to know my judgment about the history of this war, you may read it in the history of the French Jacobins. They have become a licentious and cowardly mob, and I shall not at all be surprised if, in less than three years, the leaders in this war, if Lincoln and his Cabinet, its head, came to the gallows or guillotine, just as those who led the French war; for human passions, when once aroused, are as uncontrollable as the elements above us. The only hope of mankind rests in the restraints of constitutional law, and the day they framed and ratified these lawless measures of Lincoln, they dug their own graves.
They may talk of freedom and liberty, but I tell you no people without rulers restrained by constitutional law can be free. They may be nominally free, but they are vassals and slaves, and this unbridled mob, when they attempt to check it, Lincoln and the rest will be dealt with just as I tell you it was in France. – Extracts from a speech of Alexander H. Stephen’s, Vice-President of the Confederacy. ” LIBERTY OR DEATH!” This was the cry of Patrick Henry in the great struggle for our national independence. We believe, at this moment, it animates the hearts of all true Virginians. Indeed, we have never seen nor imagined anything comparable in the feeling which pervades this Commonwealth at this time. Since the foul invaders have polluted our soil with their footsteps, an irrepressible eagerness to give them bloody graves pervades all classes. Old and young, women and children, all share in the exciting and universal emotion. Death to the tyrants is not only on the lips, but in the hearts of our whole population. The restraints of military discipline are scarcely thought of in the intense and restless anxiety to rush on the foe, and avenge in blood the outrage on our honor and freedom. We confess to a thorough sympathy with this patriotic ardor, and know no refreshing sleep on account of the restless desire to be butchering the invading ruffians. But it is an impatience which we know should be moderated, and reduced to subordination to military discipline. Its unrestrained indulgence may bring more mischief on ourselves than on the enemy. We fear some such catastrophe.
Let us, while we cherish an ardor and determination to resist to the death, remember that we have able military leaders, and put’ implicit confidence in the wisdom of their measures. They are cheerful and confident at the prospect before us. Let not the people be discouraged by any petty and temporary reverses that may befall us. The enemy have some advantages to start with; but we have advantages-the advantages of a brave and free people fighting for their firesides and freedom-against which all the hosts of despotism cannot prevail. We may be worsted to-day, but, cheered by Liberty’s manly voice, we will rally with redoubled energy for the fight to-morrow. Let the bright example of Jackson of Alexandria animate every heart, and the memory of his sad fate impel the avenging steel of every Virginian. See in every Yankee the murderer of that patriot martyr! -Richmond Whig. Do these besotted fanatics flatter themselves that Alexandria is to be kept in chains, like those which bind poor Baltimore to the car of the Federal despotism? The ” bloody and brutal” purpose of the Abolitionists, to subjugate and exterminate the Southern people, stands confessed by this flagrant outrage upon Virginia soil. Virginians, arise in your strength, and welcome the invader with ” bloody hands to hospitable graves.”
The sacred soil of Virginia, in which repose the ashes of so many of the illustrious patriots who gave independence to their country, has been desecrated by the hostile tread of an armed enemy, who proclaims his malignant hatred of Virginia because she will not bow her proud neck to the humiliating yoke of Yankee rule. Meet the invader at the threshold. Welcome him with bayonet and bullet. Swear eternal hatred of a treacherous foe, whose only hope of safety is in your defeat and subjugation. Virginia will be the Moscow of the Abolitionists-our armies are gathering to the prey, and so surely as the patriot-freemen of the Southern army come in conflict with the mercenary hordes of the North, so surely will they give the world another example of the invincibility of a free people fighting on their own soil for all that is dear to man.
WE rejoice at the death of Ellsworth, and only regret that every man who followed him did not share his fate; we lament the sacrifice of the gallant Virginian.
We trust that every colonel in the Federal service will meet his Jackson, and that every Hessian will find his grave upon her soil. – Richmond Enquirer.