XXXII
The Abolitionists and Disunion (Concluded)
These citations from the deliverances of the great leaders of the Abolitionists will give some idea of the motives and methods which pervaded that fellowship. With tireless insistence they went forward with their labors for the abolition of slavery and the dissolution of the Union, the latter being deemed a condition precedent to the complete accomplishment of the former. Only the action of South Carolina, which brought the nation face to face with a practical attempt at disunion, served to suspend the efforts of the Abolitionists to effect a like result. This momentous step on the part of South Carolina was received with exultant satisfaction—William Lloyd Garrison declaring, "All Union-saving efforts are simply idiotic. At last 'the covenant with Death' is annulled, and the 'agreement with Hell' broken, at least by the action of South Carolina, and ere long by all the slaveholding states, for their doom is one."[[329]] And Wendell Phillips re-echoed the sentiment: "Let the South march off with flags and trumpets, and we will speed the parting guest. Let her not stand upon the order of her going, but go at once: Give her jewels of silver and gold, and rejoice that she has departed. All hail, Disunion!"[[330]]
THE UNION THWARTS EFFORTS OF ABOLITIONISTS
Such was the condition of affairs with respect to the controversy over slavery in Virginia in the fateful winter of 1860-61. For the maintenance of the institution stood the constitution and laws of the Union and the pledges of the Republican Party dominant in their administration. For the destruction of the institution stood the Abolitionists, a great fellowship, earnest and aggressive, but without official power in the National Government and relying upon disunion or a condition of civil war as the essential prerequisite to the accomplishment of their plans.
James G. Blaine wrote:
"But for the constant presence of National power and its constant exercise under the provisions of the constitution, the South would have no protection against anti-slavery assaults of the civilized world. Abolitionists from the very beginning of their energetic crusade against slavery had seen the constitution standing in their way, and with the unsparing severity of their logic had denounced it as 'a league with Hell and a covenant with Death.'"[[331]]
VIEWS OF PROMINENT VIRGINIANS
The people of Virginia in like manner appreciated the situation. "What madness," wrote Madison, "in the South to look for greater safety in disunion! It would be worse than jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. It would be jumping into the fire from fear of the frying pan, i.e., Northern meddling with slavery."[[332]]
Governor McDowell, referring to slavery and disunion, said: