[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from August 8 (reply #5). On this date Seward gave the speech in St. Paul mentioned in the third paragraph below.

Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury

[colorado tanker]

I think if I was a Northern voter in 1860 I wouldn't believe the South would actually secede if Lincoln won, either. The fire eaters had been making that threat for years. Plus, no one is going to blackmail me to vote on a candidate not of my choice.

Plus, the Republican platform was not emancipation. Far from it. They just wanted to keep slavery out of the Territories.

What Northerners didn't appreciate is that the Southern slave-ocracy knew perfectly well that would start a process of very slow but inevitable emancipation. They feel that have to nip that in the bud, to quote a great philosopher.