Editorials: Objects of Disunionists-Effect of their Threats upon the Value of Negroes, Southern Sentiment, How to Elect a President (10/29/1860)

New York Times - Times Machine ^ | 10/29/1860

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Richmond Whig, the Raleigh (N.C.) Register, and other influential Southern journals, charge that the object of the seceders from the Charleston Convention was, by breaking up the Democratic Party, "to dissolve the Union, in order to open the African Slave-trade, and bring down the value of negroes, that the profits upon cotton might be higher." This is a very grave imputation upon the honor, humanity and patriotism of the Fire-eaters, but it is fully sustained by their own declarations, or those of their newspapers and orators. Despairing of reopening the Slave-trade, and of enjoying the luxury of cheap negroes while the Union lasts, this deprivation has been a favorite argument with the Southern Democratic leaders for a dissolution of the Federal compact. The fact charged upon the Cotton State Democracy by the Virginia journals is by no means new to us; but we call attention to their recognition of it as a sign of progress. No more disastrous event to the slave interest of Virginia and other old Slave States, where negro labor is already superabundant, could occur, than the revival of the African Slave-trade. That piratical traffic is repugnant to the moral sense of Northern men, but its revival would be to the slaveholders north of the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude, simple pecuniary ruin, to say nothing of the fearful addition it would make to that dangerous class of population. It is surprising that this truth has not been recognized in all its appalling proportions before now.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous New York Times thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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2

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Editorial: Objects of Disunionists-Effect of their Threats upon the Value of Negroes – 2
Editorial: Southern Sentiment – 2-3
Editorial: How to Elect a President – 3
The Lady Elgin Disaster: More Bodies Recovered – 3
Naval and Military Intelligence – 3
A Seaman Drowned Himself to Escape Being Beaten to Death – 3
Terrible Lynching Affair – 3
A Father Accidentally Shoots His Daughter – 3

[BroJoeK]

Worth noticing that the "real reason" for secession is here given as Deep South slavers' desires to reopen international slave trading, something impossible under the current Constitution.

As important, the editorial points out that such importations of slaves would mean "simple pecuniary ruin" to "old Slave States" who currently export their "surplus" slaves to newer states.

This may help explain why Virginia & other Upper South states refused to secede absent something that could be called "injury or oppression".

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Thank you for that interesting observation. (We don’t have Like or Retweet here, so the old-fashioned statement of gratitude will have to do.)

[colorado tanker]

Even in 1860 Democrats didn’t understand the law of supply and demand and how markets work.