Will Secession Preserve Slavery?


Herald and Torch (Hagerstown, Md.), March 13, 1861:


The Baltimore Sun, which is the exponent of the extreme sentiments of the Southern rights men of Maryland, as they call themselves, says that “secession and union with the South is the only thing that can preserve” the institution of Slavery in Maryland. Thus, the cloven-foot is very plainly shown by the Metropolitan organ of the BRECKINRIDGE politicians. It virtually assumes as a fact that the North has become permanently Republicanized in the partizan acceptation of that term, and from this very questionable hypothesis, proceeds to argue that slavery will be insecure in the Border States if they remain in the Union with that North as an insignificant minority, but it utterly fails to show how that institution in Maryland would be more secure in a Southern Confederacy. We do not believe that a majority of the Northern people have willfully and deliberately determined to crush out Slavery, or that they are not prepared at this very moment, could they be heard through their ballot-boxes, to do us ample justice. But suppose the Sun is right in its uncharitable opinion of those people, what protection can JEFF. DAVIS’ Confederacy extend to the institution of Slavery in Maryland that it does not now enjoy under the Constitution and in the Union which our forefathers framed and cemented and bequeathed to us as the most priceless of legacies? Release those Northern people from their constitutional obligations to us, and what is to prevent them from striking down Slavery wherever it can be reached? and what is to prevent them from reaching it in Maryland but an imaginary division line of nearly two hundred miles in length? We think the people of this State will require some further information upon this subject from the Sun – some additional rays of light from this great Southern luminary – because they are prepared to accept its proposition that “secession and union with the South is the only thing that can preserve the institution of slavery in Maryland,” or before they are willing to believe that such a suicidal step would not put that institution in the course of very rapid extinction in all the border States.

This text was taken from Robert Moore's excellent blog, Cenantua's Blog.


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Source:  Scanned image of archived newspaper.

Date added to website: On or before August 1, 2019