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| Union Envelope.1 |
The uprising in the Slave-labor States at this time, though less general and enthusiastic, was nevertheless marvelous. The heresy of State Supremacy, which Calhoun and his followers adroitly called State rights, because the latter is a sacred thing cherished by all, was a political tenet generally accepted as orthodox. It had been inculcated in every conceivable form and on every conceivable occasion;2 and men who loved the Union and deprecated secession were in agreement with the conspirators on that point. Hence it was that in the tornado of passion then sweeping over the South, where reason was discarded, thousands of intelligent men, deceived by the grossest misrepresentations respecting the temper, character, and intentions of the people of the Free-labor States, flew to arms, well satisfied that they were in the right, because resisting what they believed to be usurpation, and an unconstitutional attempt at the subjugation of a free people, on the part of the National Government.
The writer was in New Orleans at the time of the attack on Fort Sumter, in quest of knowledge respecting the stirring military events that occurred in that vicinity at the close of the year 1814 and the beginning of 1815. He was accompanied by a young kinswoman. We arrived there on the 10th,
April 1861. |
