Raynors HCA 2014-11
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/6/2014
A wonderful pro-Southern 1860 New York school teacher's letter, 4pp. 4to., written by a certain "D. B. Ventros" New Hamburgh, [New York], Dec. 31, 1860, in part: "…so South Carolina has gone out of the Union. Has begun a Revolution which may…overthrow the best…Government ever seen…before the Fourth of March next it looks as though Honest!! Old Abe will have no Union to reign over…it is too late to speculate concerning what will prevent the beginning. It looks very much as though we had no Union, no country, no government…we have none for every state has the same right as South Carolina and when one link of the bright chain or one stone…from the glorious arch breaks…the whole falls to the ground…there is much fault upon both sides, but the heaviest balance…falls on the North. People at the North for twenty years have denied that the Southern states had any rights in common with the North and I hope that before this is settled they will find out that they have rights and…dare maintain them. The whole trouble has come from the discussion and agitation of the Slavery Question and politicians anxious to ride into power & officer have not hesitated to make capital out of it. If the South are a minority that is no reason why they should not be respected. They…by the Constitution have no right to secede…bet they have the right to revolutionize and throw the yoke…as our Fathers had the right in '76…if the other states succeed in keeping them in, all right for them, but they cannot succeed…the whole South against as divided North will succeed if it comes to war…may God forbid…it will be disastrous to the whole country and, at first, more particularly to the South…if any compromise is attempted let it be in the Constitution and be made as lasting as the globe itself. I don't attempt to find fault with Old Buck as a great many do…his motives were right…he has not the decisive energy and promptness of action…that Jackson had but…he meant right…Gen. Scott was right, but still I don't blame the president for not accepting it if he did not think so. The placing of a garrison of a thousand men in those fort might have woke up the whole South…and plunged the country in a civil war…nor do I blame Major Anderson for his evacuation of Fort Moultrie and occupation of Fort Sumter…he did what was right if he did go beyond orders…as a military discipline he did wrong, be that as it may, I think most people commend it…failures are plenty 4,000,000 in New York City…even Old Haddam…suffers from it…the umbrella factory went down on account of the crisis impending from the South. The papers…speak of a general stagnation of business…I hope it wont affect school teaching. If it does…I shall have nothing to do…and offer my services to my country…I used to think the South was the best part of the Union…and my mind is not changed much yet. I don't believe in Slavery yet the Constitution gives it to them and let them have it if they want it…they should be protected in their rights…". Minor toning, else VG
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