February 26, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
Let us suppose that the world at large has no interest in the establishment of a great Slaveholding Confederacy of Republican States, and that the question of admitting Non-Slaveholding States into the Confederacy, or of unrestricted commercial intercourse with Non-Slaveholding States, is merely a question of interest and security for the Confederate States – it is impossible, it appears to us, to find any good reasons for either policy. We have bitter experience upon this matter; and this experience has proved that Slaveholding and Non-Slaveholding States cannot live in harmony together. From the beginning of the United States Government (indeed before it was formed) – in the Convention which framed the Constitution – the jealousy and rivalry which two such distinct forms of labor and society seemed necessarily to produce, arose with the fiercest antagonism. Nothing but the absolute safety and existence itself of the States, in their early formation, drew them together. They were too weak to stand apart; and for this reason, and this alone, they submitted to the compromises contained in the Constitution of the United States. Nor did this antagonism cease its operations under the Union of the United States, until at length it has ended in separation and the most cruel and bloody war. It is impossible for the experiment of uniting Slaveholding and Non-Slaveholding States under the same government, to have been made under more favorable terms and circumstances than those which prevailed over the Union of the United States. From its commencement, the whole operation of the United States Government was in favor of the Non-Slaveholding States. The Slaveholding States were made tributary to their aggrandizement and wealth in every way that the wit of their statesmen could invent, until at length the Slaveholding States were practically, in all their commercial and pecuniary relations, colonies of the Non-Slaveholding States. Their brilliant career in prosperity and power consequently surpassed that of any people, probably, the world ever saw. The Constitution was set aside by the convenient constructions of Congressional majorities, and the Central Government systematically used to aggrandize the Non-Slaveholding States, at the expense of the Slaveholding. Northern cities were by legislation made centres of credit. Northern shipping was given the monopoly of our carrying trade by Navigation Laws. Northern manufactures were built up and supported by tribute from the South, and the money taken from the pockets of consumers of foreign goods by Protective Tariffs was squandered in internal improvement jobs throughout the North. The commerce of the whole country passed into the hands of people of the Non- Slaveholding States and Cities, and they prospered through a thousand channels of tribute from the dependent South. Yet this very prosperity and power only deepened, instead of allaying, the antagonism between the Slaveholding and the Non-Slaveholding States. Their Union lasted just as long as the Slaveholding States had the power of protecting themselves, under the Constitution, from the aggressive hostility of the Non-Slaveholding States. As soon as the Non-Slaveholding States got possession of the Government, the Union was dissolved. Its dissolution was a necessity for self-preservation. The fierce and brutal lusts and passions of the Non- Slaveholding States would not stop at driving us out of the Union with them, after years of persecution. They follow their persecution now by the most barbarous war, with the attempt utterly to destroy us. Striking at the great source of antagonism, they proclaim emancipation to our slaves. This is natural. It is the legitimate fruit of placing Slaveholding and Non- Slaveholding States together under the same government. The whole history of the United States is one grand lesson, teaching the folly of such a Union. And yet, in spite of this history, and the terrible experience it has wrought out upon us, we see it proposed that we should admit the Northwestern Non- Slaveholding States into our Confederacy. Is this merely folly, or is it madness?
The grand reason for admitting the Northwestern States into our Confederacy is interest. The waters of the Mississippi and its tributaries unite the Southwestern and Northwestern States together in certain bonds of interest. This is true. But are the bonds of interest any greater between the States on the Mississippi River and the States on the Atlantic Ocean? It is an American notion, convenient for the Yankee designs. The communication by water or by railroad is just as free and ample by the one means as by the other. Then, why should not New York or Pennsylvania be admitted into the Confederacy, as well as Ohio and Illinois? None but the Chinese have walls of separation. The truth is, all nations have interests with each other through all commercial intercourse. But has it not been proved that interest is not sufficient to produce harmony between Slaveholding and Non-Slaveholding States? Let Illinois and Ohio hold themselves the pen of legislation, and they cannot tie down their States by stronger bonds of interest to this Confederacy, than those which bound all the Free States to fidelity to the Union of the United States. And yet what avail was interest to check their inevitable progress to faithlessness – corruption – persecution – disunion – war? Laws cannot bind them, and their views of Republicanism is Radical Mobocracy – the will of the majority – Agrarianism, Red Republicanism. Can the waters of the Mississippi heal the leprosy of sin which cleaves to our fallen race, or wash out the leopard spots on the Yankee? The Northwestern States, if admitted to our Confederacy, will carry us through the same course of contention, trouble and disaster which we have trod with the Northern States. Whilst the Slaveholding States control the Confederacy it will last, even in contention, heartbreak and organized trouble. As soon as they are outnumbered by the Free States, which is inevitable from the course of time, it will end, or we shall be ruined as a people. Once open the door to Non- Slaveholding States to enter our Confederacy, there will be no limit, and the renewal of the struggle for independence and safety is only an affair of time. Deeply impressed with the fatal impolicy of having Slaveholding and Non- Slaveholding States united under the same government, the State of South Carolina, when seceding from the Union of the United States, invited the other Southern States to unite with her forming a Slaveholding Confederacy. The address of her Convention to the People of the Slaveholding States concludes as follows:
‘All we demand of other peoples is to be left alone, to work out our own high destinies. United together, and we must be the most independent, as we are amongst the most important of the nations of the world. United together, and we require no other instrument to conquer peace than our beneficent productions. United together, and we must be a great, free, and prosperous people, whose renown must spread throughout the civilized world, and pass down, we trust, to the remotest ages. We ask you to join us in forming a Confederacy of Slaveholding States.’