[colorado tanker]

Strong was a very bright, insightful man, but he was wrong. The South would have seceded had Fremont been elected, just as they seceded when Lincoln was elected. He did not appreciate how strong the hold of slavery was on the South's governing class.

See, the speech to the Georgia legislature of Sen. Robert Toombs. http://civilwarcauses.org/toombs.htm

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Strong expressed his contempt for the south in general, Texas and South Carolina in particular, at the time of the 1850 compromise. He would remain a secession doubter right through 1860.