[WhiskeyPapa]

There were many voices, North and South, which were far more constructive...

This was the typical "southern" voice:

The Richmond Examiner stated their choice in unflinching language:

"It is all an hallucination to suppose that we are ever going to get rid of slavery, or that it will ever be desirable to do so. It is a thing that we cannot do without;that is righteous, profitable, and permanent, and that belongs to Southern society as inherently,intrinsically, and durably as the white race itself. Southern men should act as if the canopy of heaven were inscribed with a covenant, in letters of fire, that the negro is here, and here forever—is our property, and ours forever—is never to be emancipated—is to be kept hard at work and in rigid subjection all his days."

-- "The Coming Fury" by Bruce Catton

Walt

[labard1]

I did not have the Richmond Examiner's declaration of the permanence of slavery in the South in mind when I said there were many voices which were far more constructive. Specifically I was thinking of the Whigs (Constitutional Union) and Senator Stephen Douglas. But if the ultimate judgement on matters is to be determined by journalists, I hope future historians don't read the New York Times.