The Temper of the Southern Mind, as the 1860 Election Aporoached

As the pundits currently ponder what the results of the upcoming Presidential election will mean, it is  noteworthy that this is nothing new for Americans, as people were wondering the same thing about the contest of 1860, though perhaps with more dire consequences in mind.

Here is an article from the Covington Journal of October 27, 1860 with some discussion of possible meanings of potential outcomes of the race then taking place. (This story does quote the Charleston Mercury, though some questioned that paper's credibility.)

The  Temper of the Southern Mind

The following we copy from the Charleston Mercury of the 15th:

The Minute Men - We are glad to see the people of our State everywhere preparing for the crisis which is at hand. As an offset to the "Wide Awakes" of the North, "Minute Men" are organizing in the principal districts of South Carolina. Their object is to form an armed body of men, and to join with our fellow-citizens, now forming in this and our sister States as "Minute Men," whose duty it is to arm, equip and drill, and be ready for any emergency that may arise in the present perilous position of the Southern States. The badge adopted is a blue rosette - two and a half inches in diameter, with a military button in the centre, to be worn on the side of the hat. Let the important work go bravely on, and let every son of Carolina prepare to mount the blue cockade.

The Richmond Enquirer, in an article on the contingency of Lincoln's election, uses the following language:

"Virginia can no more prevent the dissolution of the Union after Lincoln's election than she can prevent that election. She will be powerless to prevent civil war, with all its attendant horrors. Any of the Southern States can, and some of them will involve the whole country, North as well as South, in the internecine strife of bloody and desolating civil war. Virginia will, by a majority of her people, decide upon resistance, while a large minority may desire to postpone resistance for the 'overt act;' but, hitched as she is to the Southern States, she will be dragged into a common destiny with them, no matter what may be the decree of her people. We believe that a large majority of the people of Virginia, if the opportunity of a State Convention was allowed them, would vote for immediate resistance and for a common destiny with the Southern State; and with this belief we would advise the slave States not to hesitate to strike an early blow from fear that Virginia may hesitate in her duty to the South."

The Lynchburg Virginian (Breckenridge,) says:

"They who suppose that the election of Lincoln will not result in the dissolution of the Union are entirely deluded. The Cotton States will go out, and Virginia will be compelled to go along with them. Besides - discarding all party feeling, as our people will do after this election - a large and determined majority of the people of Virginia will be for dissolution, rather than submit to the humiliation and disgrace which the election of Lincoln will entail upon the country."

We copy the following from the Vicksburg Whig:

"The Yazoo Banner reports Gov. Pettus as having said upon the streets of Yazoo City, that he had not only drawn from the State Treasury the two hundred thousand dollars appropriated by the last Legislature to purchase arms and ammunition, but he had ordered more than they could purchase, giving his receipts as Governor of the State for the amount overdrawn. Will any body with these facts before them, maintain that the Government of Mississippi is not preparing to go out of the Union?"

Courtesy pscwrt.org