The disunionist: a brief treatise upon the evils of the union between the North and the South, and the propriety of separation and the formation of a southern United States

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Preface

It would be almost impossible to write an article upon political subjects in this country without stating some facts and arguments that have been stated before. Hence it is not pretended that all the thoughts contained in this treatise are original or new.

A large and extended work upon the subject of disunion would not be read by the mass of people, for the reason that the cost of publishing it would raise the price so high that many would not buy it; while others, for want of time and indiiference to the subject, would be deterred by the size of the book from reading it.

Some of the learned in political lore might have been gratified to see some of the chapters of this extended to the size of the whole book ; but such persons need not books to aid them in forming conclusions. It was the object in writing this to condense facts, and arguments founded thereon, and bring them down to a compass that all might read, understand, and remember. To inform the judgment of the people is the only mode sought in this of producing action. The subject requires dispassionate investigation in order to arrive at truth.

While the author professes no love for the people of the non-slaveholding States, it would be as unjust to attribute his motives to hatred toward them as to personal disappointment on his own part. I love the South, her people, and institutions; and feel that she has been deeply wronged ; that her condition in the Union is that of deplorable dependence and subordination, and that there is no just grounds for us to hope for relief from abject slavery as a people, except in Southern independence.

The people may investigate the facts and come to a different conclusion, but in doing so they will certainly see enough to induce them to pardon what they may think is the error into which I have fallen.

H. F.

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THE DISUNIONIST.

Chapter I. Introductory Remarks

The propriety of a book having for its avowed object a calculation of the value of the union between the Northern and Southern States, and an exposition of its evils to the South, will be readily denied by many, and perhaps a large majority of the reading public. It is believed, however, that the most hasty to condemn will be those who have the least information, and have undergone the least reflection upon the subject; and that the book, if meritorious of its kind, will receive the more favor where circumstances have led the people to think seriously of the destiny of our section of the Union, and the probable results that would follow a separation. But be this as it may, the sentiments it contains, should it ever be finished and published, will not be forced upon any one. It is optional with the public to read the title-page and throw it down without a perusal, or to read it and remain silent or condemn, as interest or fancy may dictate. It is a voluntary thing with the reader to examine the subject and approve, or disapproving, to expose, if any, the errors it contains : whatever course he may pursue will not, in fact, alter a truth herein stated, or make true the slightest and least important of its errors or inaccuracies.

If the Union is valuable, it will stand the test of investigation ; if it is an evil to the South, the usual exhortation against calculating its value cannot make it a blessing, unless " ignorance is bliss."

It is conceded that the Union was intended by the original parties to the compact for good, and that it did answer that purpose and fulfil the hopes of its friends for a long period; it is conceded that it was a necessity, as well as an inestimable blessing, to our fathers in its early history. It is admitted, also, that unless a strong case can be made out, one that does not admit of a reasonable doubt, in favor of dissolution, that the behests of common prudence require that we should reject a proposal for that purpose. The people have been taught from their infancy to revere the Union. Its value has been proclaimed upon every stump ; in every hall of legislation ; heralded through the press of all opinions as to other matters. There are no household words more familiar to the people to whom this is addressed, than that the value of the Union is inestimable ; and may go to the extreme fanaticism in its favor, of asserting that it is treasonable to calculate its value. The burden of proof rests upon the party affirming that it is an evil to the

South to continue it. That affirmative is assumed with the full knowledge of the great difficulty of sailing against wind and tide ; of trying to reason with a people who, in most cases, would rather prefer quiet to thought and investigation upon the subject. It is assumed also, with the full impression of the weight and vastness of the theme, and the evil of its agitation if the position is wrong, hence with the full and undoubting conviction of judgment.

CHANGES OP PUBLIC OPINION.

Great revolutions in public sentiment and opinion often take place in very brief periods, which lead to momentous changes in action. The stand-point f*om which we gaze often changes, and even destroys the symmetry and beauty of the most lovely landscape ; and it is sincerely believed that but few persons in the South have viewed the union of these States from the proper angle of vision, and with the proper deflection of light and shade.

It is not proposed to call in question the fidelity or integrity of those who adhere to it, certainly not to make them disreputable on account of their honestly entertained opinions. But to illustrate the changes to which they even are subject, let us recur a moment, not long enough^ to tire the reader, to the history of the American Revolution, back to which we all look, unionists and disunionists, with so much pride and pleasure.

Now that the smoke of battle has blown away, and the heroes, slain and surviving the struggle, have long ago found peaceful graves beneath the soil they fought to free ; and since we can survey in the spirit of true philosophy the whole scene in its vastness and proportions, it cannot be denied that the greatest and best part of the whole was the change in public sentiment which led to the glorious deeds of valor and renown. Intending to detract nothing from the exalted statues history has erected for the patriotic soldier, still greater praise is due the masterly minds with power to discern and boldness to proclaim the necessity of the momentous act.

But a few years before the war began, the idea of separation from the British government was tenfold more disreputable throughout the colonies than disunion now is in every section of the South, from the tallest of her statesmen down to the level of the common people. Those who adhered to the crown when separation was proposed were patriots ; but those who continued that line of patriotism, and furnished aid and comfort to their brethren across the Atlantic, assumed a cognomen which will never cease to be odious.

As late as 1765, in the House of Delegates of the Old Dominion, whose session was held under the authority of the crown, when Mr. Henry dared to hint at opposition to George the Third, the then reigning monarch of the mother country, by reminding that body of the fate of Julius Csesar and of Charles the First, the presiding officer of that House cried " Treason I" and '^ treason" echoed from every part of the hall. But as early as 1775, it was glorious philanthropy and heroic patriotism to send cannon-ball and grape-shot, doing dread havoc upon his loyal troops, at Lexington and Bunker's Hill.

We shall not take issue with the Union-loving Southerner as to his intelligence, patriotism, or courage; great pleasure is taken in awarding these elements of character to him ; and it is as much a source of pride to us as to himself. It is only his unwillingness, from veneration of the Union and the ancestral glory of those who joined it, to enter into a calm inquiry upon undisputed facts as to the solidity of the foundation upon which he builds his platform whereon to live and die, and upon which he expects his children to stand. If he would only look into the question, draw aside the flimsy curtain that hides the Union's deformity, his boasted intelligence would perceive the dangers that cloud his prospects, his patriotism dictate the remedy, and his courage would sustain him in carrying into execution his plans of redress. His veneration for the Union is excusable while he believes it is valuable ; and having been taught from childhood so, his belief is excusable, unless he should wilfully or corruptly refuse to be enlightened. It would be intolerably stupid in one who has labored under the same delusion all his life until a very recent period to call in question the motives of those whose minds have not undergone the same change; therefore it is farthest from the intention of this treatise to wound their feelings.

While the Union men of the South cherish a high regard for the welfare of the whole country, their affections must cluster strongest and closest to their own loved South. We know they feel a deeper and more abiding interest in the issue that passes from their own loins than that of the insolent New Englandcr, who loves them and theirs only for gain, and who insults them in their position of dependence and subordination in the Union, only to laugh at their calamity.

But our cause is not hopeless. The only truly deplorable thing is, that our people know so little of the evils of the Union, and entertain so faint and dim conception of the power and glory that await them in an independent and separate Southern United States.

Chapter II. Origin And Purposes Of The Union

A Union, in some sense of that term, may be said to have commenced with the early settlement of the American colonies, which was simply a duty and obligation, sometimes implied and sometimes expressed, on the part of those settling and residing near each other, by united action to afford mutual protection in such emergencies as required it ; the principal cause of terror and alarm being the eminent danger to which all, at times, and some almost incessantly, were exposed from the savage natives of the soil.

It assumed a form as early as 1643, when, in order to secure "internal peace and external safety," the " New England colonies entered into articles of confederation at Boston." When, in 1765, the British Parliament imposed upon their American colonies the memorable " stamp act,"

10 THBDISUNIONIST.

by which their just indignation was aroused, they were already accustomed to look to each other for counsel, and to act in concert to secure their own internal peace and order, and to resist intrusion from without. When it became necessary for their safety to consider, not of their indqiendence, but their rights as British subjects, and to insist upon the observance thereof, even by their own government at London, as a natural consequence, arising from customary concert of action, the Congress at New York assembled.

As the spark of liberty (stifled and clouded as it was by natural allegiance and a spirit of loyalty to their king) began to glow and to warm the hearts of the people ; as the increase of injury and action, oppressive in principle and tendency, made more apparent the necessity for resistance, the same natural tendency to union, by mutual cultivation, became A fixed and confirmed principle. When, after the battle of Lexington, the faith of the " United Colonies" was pledged at Philadelphia for the redemption of their bills of credit ', and when, still later in the struggle for freedom, the "Independence" of the United States was declared, there were evidences of a fixed determination of united and harmonious conduct. That determination grew out of conscious weakness and inability of the several colonies to accomplish redress by single action.

In the "Articles of Confederation" of 1778, in furtherance of the same Union, it is expressly stipulated, " the said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other for their common defence, the security of thei7- liberties, and their muftial and general welfare; binding themselves to assist each other against all force ofi"ered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever."

In the preamble to the Constitution of 1787, which may be styled the consummation and perfection of the Union, it is recited, that "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." As we shall notice in the proper place, the Union retained to the fullest extent the federative feature, and never was intended for a nation — a consolidated government. The more perfect union was made, not to give liberty to the people, but to "secure" that which they had. It was made to "establish justice," not to authorize and commission the majority to outrage all its principles upon the minority, and that with impunity. It was made to " secure domestic tranquillity;" but the only mode our fathers instituted for that purpose was to establish justice and preserve the honor and equality of all the parties to the federative compact.

That instrument, bearing the impress of eminent statesmanship, true and exalted greatness of intellect, and undoubted patriotism, entered into hj equal sovereigns as such, in good faith, if executed and carried out in itstrue spirit, was and is sufficient for all the noble objects recited in its preamble. Of a departure from its sacred teachings, and a violation of its stipulations and guaranties, the South is not and has not been accused. For the melancholy tale which hangs upon that fatal error by tlie Nortli, our section can in no legitimate sense be lield accountable.

The administration of the government under this compact of union, this model constitution, was most properly confided to Washington. Endowed with wisdom of no ordinary degree by nature, and unsurpassed in the cultivation of the noble traits of moderation, prudence, patience, and forbearance ; with a heart brim-full of love and devotion to liberty in general and his country in particular; how truly and justly did his countrymen adore him, and how lost to gratitude were his countrymen now not to revere his memory !

That great and good man, after eight years of public civil service and successful administration, when about to retire from the helm of state, and confide the feeble through well-rigged bark to the care of other noble and trusty of her crew ; when he felt called upon by the heart-moving recollections of the past, and his deep-felt solicitude for the future, to deliver his legacy, his testamentary bequest to his country, guided by his own acquired knowledge of the breakers upon which the new-rigged ship, bearing on board his first and last loved, was likely to be driven, and upon which she has been driven; in the memorable "Farewell Address" said, <^ The unity of government which now constitutes you one people, is now also dear to you. It is justly so ; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence ; the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize." He exhorted his countrymen to " cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it, accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as a palladium of your political safety and prosperity, tvatching for its preservation with jealous anxiety: discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned ; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts."

Had the great patriot and statesman been inspired, he could not have indited wiser counsel. Had he been " risen from the dead," and had spoken to the fanatics of 1858, that now swarm over the North like a dark cloud of locusts, he would not have, as he has not, been heeded. Who but the devoted South has watched for the preservation of Washington's Union with jealous anxiety? Who has kept kindled and burning, in the day of prosperity and night of adversity, upon the altar of the Union, the vestal-fire of love and devotion, if the South has not ? But who, let us ask, has not only " attempted" but eflfectually succeeded in alienating the aflFections between the North and South ? Who enfeebled the ties that then linked the parts together ? The statesmen of New England, the Northern, and North-western States, to an injured posterity (we would hope not with curses upon their memory) will have to answer. That the fault is not at the door of the Southern people, their history from the formation of the government — a chain of noble and patriotic deeds, unbroken except where tarnished with the submission to unprovoked wrong from their northern brethren — every thing connected with the government, unite and accord and form an incontestable combination of evidence to acquit her of the charge.

CHAPTEK III.

CHANGES OF THE COUNTRY.

In 1796, when Washington delivered his Farewell Address, he looked upon the Uuiou as an " expei'iinent" as to whether a common government could embrace so large a sphere; which experiment experience had to solve. He said, " We are authorized to hope that a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency of governments for the respective subdivisions, Avill afford a happy issue of the experiment;" that ''while experience had not demonstrated its impracticability, it afforded grounds to distrust the patriotism of those who in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands." '* To listen to speculation in such a case were criminal."

And why criminal to speculate as to the issue of the experiment of the Union ? The answer is contained in the statement when, to whom, and under what circumstances the Farewell Address was delivered. It was upwards of sixty years ago. The population of the United States at that time was less than one-sixth of what it now is, and still greater was the disproportion in wealth. At the time of the Revolution the whole population was only about three millions, which number is now largely exceeded by that of the three States of Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and by that of the single State of New York. Those three millions, poorly provided with the means of subsistence and comfort, and much less so to support the charges incidental to a state of war, were scattered sparsely into thirteen of the present powerful States, and only partially settled were those thirteen. The increase in territory, wealth, general intclligen.ce, the facility of travel and transportation, and every thing that can tend to make a people powei-ful, have kept pace with the increase of population. By the financial report of 1856, the total value of property of the country in the States and Territories reaches the enormous sum of eleven billions and three hundred millions of dollars.*

The total receipts of the government for the year 1796, (the date of the Farewell Address,) by customs, sale of lands, and miscellaneous sources, amounted to only the sum of $8,740,000; while in 1856 the sum exceeded $74,000,000.

* The statistical information contained lierein upon the population, resources, finances, commerce, and navigation, is derived from the official reports for the years stated. The reason all the statements intended to represent the present status of the country are not confined to a given year is not any supposed advantage to the argument, but the want of full reports upon every point for any given 3'ear ; and upon each point elaborated by the example of a report for a given year, the year taken is supposed to be a fair example. The census report of 18;")0 is the last general report for that subject. Our own calculations upon these data do not profess to be strictly accurate ; it being the intention to approximate the true number or quantity with sufficient certainty : for instance, round numbers below the true sum are stated to facilitate the reading ; hundreds, in footing up thousands ; and thousands in millions, are sometimes cast off. But those who see fit to travel through the labyrinth of number and quantities will find the statements substantially correct.

The people of the United States in 1796 exported of their domestic produce, the value of $40,764,000 ; in 1856 they exported upwards of ^326,000,000.

The total amount of sail and steam licensed and registered tonnage of the United States in 1796 was only 831,899 tons; while we possessed in 1856, 4,871,652 tons.

The Mint of the United States in the year 1796 coined the sum of $181,805; and in 1856 the handsome sum of $64,283,963 90,

The total amount of manufactures of the year 1850, including cotton, wool, wrought and pig-iron, castings, salt, the products of breweries and distilleries and fisheries, the manufactures produced in families, and all other manufactures, was about $1,055,000,000. These statements, derived from the official reports of the country, published under the direction of Congress, and from our own calculations upon data there given, serve to convey some idea of the vast resources of the country compared with the early days of the Confederacy.

For the people of that period there was no reasonable ground to hope for the preservation of their separate and independent existence, except in concert and union. They had entered upon the great experiment of self-government, then an unexplored sea. They sailed upon the good ship Union, the chart and compass justice and equality. They "insisted upon nothing but right, and submitted to nothing wrong." This applied to other nations; for injury and oppression, fraud and plunder, by one section towards another, was no part of the oi'iginal programme. They had " millions for defence, but not a cent for tribute" — tribute to foreign countries. That one section of the Union should pay tribute to another never was put in the bond of union. But the South, as we shall hereafter show, has, and pays millions of tribute annually to the North, and has not a cent she is willing to use for defence against the worst enemies she has upon the whole earth, her Northern brethren.

To the South, then, union was as vital as separation is now. To them there was no retreat but in total destruction then, even if they had desired such a thing. They had, by joint labor and toil, and with a common interest at stake, conquered independence, and turned their backs upon the crown of the most avaricious and powerful nation in the world; than to whose clutches, to the grim jaws of death would they rather go. Division would have made them a prey to other powers, whose watchful and jealous eyes rested upon the rising young giant of the West. They stood hedged in upon the rear and either side : the Red Sea lay stretched out, spanning to the dim outlines of vision in front. It was an august and momentous period for the fathers of this republic. Fortunately there was a Moses in the camp : a man that feared God and loved his countrymen. The father of his country stretched forth his hand and waved it over the dark billows, the path of free government marked the way, and on moved the solemn procession, led by the same dauntless spirit that had led their armies to victory.

Was it wise to doubt, and thus make really doubtful that momentous experiment, pregnant with the weal of unborn millions ? Was not " speculation in such a case indeed criminal ?" But how different is the case as it now stands by the record ! with the proper union of hearts.

and a good cause to arouse our people, we could now far better withstand an assault by the allied powers of Europe than our fathers could that of a single power in 177G.

We shall show hereafter that the " indissoluble community of interests as one nation," of which President Washington spoke in 1796, does not exist in 1858.

CHANGES IN THE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE.

The people of the then United States to whom the Farewell Address was delivered, by the language of that instrument are shown to have had, " with slight shades of difference,'^ the same religion, manners, habits, and political principles. That description does not suit the country at this day. If it be not irreverent, let us suppose the great spirit of Washington, with the vision of divinity, commissioned from high Heaven to earth, to bear important dispatches to a people filling that description : that scope of land between Maine and Texas, taken as a whole, would be the last spot upon which the angel would alight. But if a line of separation were run j ust north of that portion where slaves are held as property, cutting oiF the whole of what is now known as free States and Territories, that which wei'e left on the south of the line would '' fill the bill." Those north, should the experiment ever be made, it will be found do not.

A different race of people occupy the Northern States of this Union from those who lived in Washington's day, actuated by different motives and principles. With whom did he and Carroll, Madison, Rutledge, Pinckney, and Baldwin meet in convention, when they gave to the world for a model of government the Constitution of the United States ? Who came to that council-chamber from New York, New Jersey, and the New England States, and there mingled minds and souls for the common good ? Go read the list of patriotic statesmen from the Northern and Eastern States who aided in the formation and early administration of the government, and see if their like live there or can possibly be born of the stock that now occupy their costly heritage but to abuse the trust. How iinlike the great leadei's of the North of 1858 were Hamilton, Jay, John Adams, Guerry, Cushing, Wolcott, Knox, Wilson, Langdon, Dayton, Clinton, and Eufus King ! Can it be pretended, with any show of truth, that in a political aspect there is a point of reasonable resemblance between the people who honored these and their colaborers from the North, and the constituents of Mr. Seward, Mr. Giddings, or Mr. Burlingame, in 1858 ?

Was the New England pulpit in 1788 desecrated, from Sabbath to Sabbath, by the belching forth of malicious slander and detractions upon the sons and daughters of the Old Dominion ? Was it not rather a song of praise for the common deliverance, and a pi-aycr of the heart for the common weal ? Did the pious preachers and laymen of that day ever think of sending out men with gun and sword to drive the sons of Georgia from the common territory? Did the heroic matrons of those days salute the ears of the rising sons of noble sires, from the earliest dawn of intellect to hardy manhood, with curses upon the South and her institutions ? Did the Northern press, that great channel of public sentiment and intelligence, disgorge from day to day, and from year to year, homilies of deuuuciatiou upon the land of Pinckney, Macon, and Jeiferson ? Nay. The blood of Northern and Southern soldiers, that had run and settled in mingled pools, had scarcely dried from the field of battle. They felt weak and helpless as the South did. They also felt the need of a common bond of union, which could not be had unless upon equal terms. Then the fresh memory of common aid and benefits made all sections grateful and just to each other. Then it was that the Constitution was framed upon paper, and, for a while, was carried out in spirit.

Had our Northern brethren been true to the compact of union, or even only now and then suffered its sacred guai-anties to be violated, the magnanimity of the South would for ever have suppressed serious complaint. But as the thunder of revolutionary guns died upon the ear, and the recollections of the gallant charge and the heroic defence grow less vivid in their minds ; as the scenes of the past became more and more obscure in the dim distance ; as they began to feel the growth of wealth and the increase of power, and to realize the truth of their own numerical superiority, and to be conscious of their own real independence, the lines of gratitude from their hearts, one by one, were effaced ; justice lost her throne, whose seat. Inequality, in proud disdain, desecrates. There she sits, levying tribute of the Southern agriculturalist, to clothe in costly purple and feed on sumptuous repast the lordly manufacturer. There she sits, strengthening, year by year, the chains of Southern subordination and slavery.

The people of our section of the Union have not undergone all the mutations that have passed upon their Northern confederates. We have continued to abide the Constitution and its stipulations with a strict construction of the powers of the central government; we know no " higher law" than that instrument imposes upon all ; we claim no more than our rights, ask for no exclusive or class legislation in our favor. Our history will bear out the assertion that ours are and ever have been a generous and magnanimous people. But there is one change that is now, and has been for years, going on in the minds of the people of the slaveholdiug States. They love not as their fathers did the people of the non-slaveholding States. A sense of injury and insult, and aggression upon their rights, by a people who have no interest in the slave property of the South, cannot fail eventually, if it has not already produced, in lieu of the former fraternal feelings that of deep-seated and radical hatred. Who that knows any thing upon the subject can assert now that there is any true friendship between our people and those of the North ? Old men of Carolina, do you cherish the same regard for them now that you did in early life ? Young and middleaged men of Alabama and the Southwest, do your hearts respond with the same warmth to the praises and adulations of the Union they did eight years ago ? Do you love the North at all ? If so, upon what State do your devotions centre ? Is it one of those who send out Sharpe's rifles to Kansas, to bleed your son who has emigrated to that Territory, and drive him from the property for which he has paid his money and upon which he has expended his labor ?