"[A]lways there had been the complicated factor of the one institution that peculiarly set the South apart from the North, slavery... Southern states had embraced the Union only insofar as it served to protect their rights to hold property in slaves, and to spread slavery as the nation expanded and the institution itself became intertwined as a defining element in the struggle for national power itself. In slavery could not spread as new states were formed, then the existing slave states would be doomed to perpetual minority in representation in Congress, guaranteeing that if the day came when Northern antipathy to slavery itself became hot enough, the majority could use the government to subvert the Constitution and abolish the institution where it already existed. In short, the South could not affort to lose any battle over slavery, nor even over issues on its periphery."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
William Davis, Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America (2002), New York: The Free Press, p. 3
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
American Civil War
485 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by American Civil War →
Related Quotes
"The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states, …"
"The General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves."
"I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the South. So fully am I s…"
"There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen. Now he belongs to the ages."
"If you surrender, you shall be treated as prisoners of war, but if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quar…"
"The General Assembly shall, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and every tenth year thereafter, c…"
"The river was dyed with the blood of the slaughtered for two hundred yards. The approximate loss was upward of five h…"
"As ensigns of an unholy cause the Confederate flags are, and of right ought to be, odious to the eyes of loyalty."
"War means fighting, and fighting means killing."
"No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be p…"