[I]ts foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.[3]
The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution—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 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 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 the wind blew, it fell.”[5][6]
Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great 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, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science.
May we not therefore look with confidence to the ultimate universal acknowledgement of the truths upon which our system rests? It is the first government ever instituted upon the principles in strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials of human society. Many governments have been founded upon the principle of the subordination and serfdom of certain classes of the same race; such were and are in violation of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of nature's laws.
It’s strange and quite sad to see so many folks here pretend that the cause of the Civil War was something other than what the Vice President of the Confederacy actually stated at the time.
The issue is "Do they have a right to leave"?
Not whether you get to sit in judgement over their alleged reasons for leaving.
Great information!
Even after the Confederacy was desperately short of Soldiers, it was still enough of a "cornerstone" so that many refused to even consider recruiting slaves into the Army. It would have cut against the entire purpose of the Confederacy's existence.
"You cannot make soldiers of slaves, or slaves of soldiers. The day you make a soldier of them is the beginning of the end of the Revolution. And if slaves seem good soldiers, then our whole theory of slavery is wrong."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howell_Cobb
Wow. Those white slave owners literally missed the message from Gd before laid before each of them. It is truth that people are created equal and that genetics has equally scattered its range of intellect and strength amongst the peoples of the world. Connecting different cultures have always seen and understood that.
How did the landowning south DENY the truth before their eyes, that though imprisoned and uneducated, the human brain was represented to the highest potentials in their owned slaves?? You know damn well their were duties some slaveowners could trust better to a slave than their own son. This document is racism based as always in utter ignorance.