And bigger than the fear of the confiscation of their property and the
destruction of the Constitution their fathers had created loomed before
the Southern mind the Specter of a new democracy at the touch of whose
fetid breath the soul of culture and refinement they believed must die.
In the vulgar ranks of this democracy must march sooner or later four
million negroes but yesterday from the jungles of Africa.
This greater issue was felt but dimly by the leaders on either side but
it was realized with sufficient clearness to make compromise impossible.
In vain did the aged and the feeble plead once more for compromise. Real
men no longer wished it.
The day of reckoning had come. The seeds of this tragedy were planted in
the foundation structure of the Republic.
The Union of our fathers, for all the high sounding phrases of its
Declaration of Independence was not a democracy. It was from the
beginning an aristocratic republic founded squarely on African Slavery.
And the degraded position assigned to the man who labored with his hands
was recognized in our organic law.
The Constitution itself was the work of a rich and powerful group of
leaders in each State, and its provisions were a compromise of
conflicting sectional property interests.
Pages:
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98