The first article in the Rep. is condemned by the two colours, White Brown, but I can't see why. We are in fearful times, but the Lord reigneth & I have no serious fears for the issue. I feel like Gen. Jackson-"the Union must & shall be preserved" and "their object is disunion; but be not deceived, disunion, by armed force, is treason." I hope no one will be hung, tho' a few deserve it. I have no confidence in man's wisdom; but as I said in my last baccalaureate, God made this government & he will not let man destroy it. (Augusta County: George Junkin to Francis McFarland, January 19, 1861)
While in comparison to these heated ideologies, only the last of which holds out hope to the end that unity will be restored, the letters and documents from Franklin county express the idea that their chosen voices will preserve the union, it would seem with sheer intent.
We are passing along in the Even tenor of our way, and enjoying life as our circumstances allow, and experience little of the agitation which is now felt at Washington. We are not at all alarmed about the Union going down. Having read the Speeches in Congress about dossolution & c., we can sleep very calmly. (Franklin County: P. Bergstressen to Edward McPherson, December 24, 1859)
This idea brings to mind the early responses to the war, that are evident when one sees the ladies in sunbonnets out in carriages, watching the battle of Gettysburg. Many were blindsided by the brutality of the war and in this case there is some evidence that the North, being of the opinion that their cause was right assumed that this would play out well, just as so many other heated national formation issues had.
However impracticable may be the Southern leader at Washington & in the discontented States, it is manifest that the righteous, [illeg.] & temperate position of the Republicans generally in telling upon the Southern people. I do not see myself how the matter is to be compromised. The difficulty may be adjusted & the adjustment termed a compromise; but it must in fact be a surrender on one side or the other. How is the right to hold slaves in [illeg.] to be [unclear: compromised] ? How is a Slave [unclear: Cide] to be [unclear: compromised] ? The North can never consent to the universal dominion of Slavery in this nation and nothing less will satisfy the South; and indeed nothing less will ensure the perpetuation of Slavery. The restoration of the Missouri Compromise line & its extension to the Pacific, would grate very harshly upon the connections of the Northern people. It would be no concession to the North, for it would make no territory free that could by any possibility be slave; while it would inevitably force Slavery into Southern California, New Mexico, & would be followed by the annexation of [unclear: Baha] & the absorption of another slice of Mexico. Rest assured that if the North concedes its present forces, the South will ever here after have the preponderance in the Senate & practically the supreme [unclear: pres] of the government. Our present victory would be fruitless save to disgrace us as a party in one our establishment & in the eyes of the civilized world. What is to be done I can scarcely suggest. I know what should be done. The North should enforce the laws at home and also enforce the supremacy of the laws with all insurgent States; but as a party we are divided, & I am not hopeful of a happy & creditable solution of the difficulty. (Franklin County: Alexander K. McClure to Edward McPherson, December 14, 1860.)
Though it is clear that McClure notes many irreconcilable differences, again he notes confidence in the administration to manage a compromise, another example of the northern idealism just before the war. McClure makes clear that he is invested in the ideas but that the foundation of the "moderate" northern hand will likely hold the union together.
Did motivations change over time or remain consistent?
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