Slavery was the immediate cause of the Civil War – Part Two
By 1850 Southerners had been severely scorned by the new Northern morality informed by Christian abolitionist sentiment, and perhaps most eloquently exemplified by noted abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison:
I am a believer in that portion of the Declaration of American Independence in which it is set forth, as among self-evident truths, "that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Hence, I am an abolitionist. Hence, I cannot but regard oppression in every form – and most of all, that which turns a man into a thing – with indignation and abhorrence.
Not to cherish these feelings would be recreancy to principle. They who desire me to be dumb on the subject of slavery, unless I will open my mouth in its defense, ask me to give the lie to my professions, to degrade my manhood, and to stain my soul. I will not be a liar, a poltroon, or a hypocrite, to accommodate any party, to gratify any sect, to escape any odium or peril, to save any interest, to preserve any institution, or to promote any object.
Convince me that one man may rightfully make another man his slave, and I will no longer subscribe to the Declaration of Independence. Convince me that liberty is not the inalienable birthright of every human being, of whatever complexion or clime, and I will give that instrument to the consuming fire.
I do not know how to espouse freedom and slavery together. I do not know how to worship God and Mammon at the same time. If other men choose to go upon all fours, I choose to stand erect, as God designed every man to stand. If, practically falsifying its heaven-attested principles, this nation denounces me for refusing to imitate its example, then, adhering all the more tenaciously to those principles, I will not cease to rebuke it for its guilty inconsistency.
Numerically, the contest may be an unequal one, for the time being; but the author of liberty and the source of justice, the adorable God, is more than multitudinous, and he will defend the right. My crime is that I will not go with the multitude to do evil. My singularity is that when I say that freedom is of God and slavery is of the devil, I mean just what I say. My fanaticism is that I insist on the American people abolishing slavery or ceasing to prate of the rights of man… (http://members.aol.com/jfepperson/garrison.html)
Garrison and many other abolitionists employed brutal reason against slavery, using the very philosophy that served as the basis for America. As a result, the North gradually began to reject slavery. Since the south’s economy depended upon slavery, southerners began to claim slavery was morally right. Both sides became increasingly entrenched. Their hard stances were no doubt supported by the bad blood that had developed as a result of tariff politics. But the slavery debate ruled the times on its own. It was the dominant political issue within the power centers of the country, causing Henry Benning (who would later become a Confederate General), to claim in 1849
First then it is apparent, horribly apparent, that the slavery question rides insolently over every other everywhere -- in fact that is the only question which in the least affects the result of elections. It is not less manifest that the whole North is becoming ultra anti-slavery and the whole South ultra pro-slavery. Hence very small acts of deviation from the prevailing course of conduct of either section, being so conspicuous from their rarity, will attract immense animadversion. (Benning to Howell Cobb found in “The Toombs, Stephens, Cobb Correspondence, published by the American Historical Association in 1913.” (SEE members.aol.com second paragraph)
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