You read a paper like this - less than a year before the civil war starts.
Not even a clue what is coming.
Comparisons to today?
Really about 2 years. But yeah, it is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Secession talk has been going on for years. After the 1860 Presidential campaign begins publicly in Charleston next April it will get louder, with southerners proclaiming an “abolitionist” Republican president will cause breakup of the union. But still, most people won’t really believe it.