From Pine View Farm

First Shots 0

Today’s Chicago Tribune recalls that paper’s editorial upon the assault on Fort Sumpter. The tone of the editorial recalls the jingoistic bombast common in the 19th century (and the descendants of which are still with us: remember “freedom fries”?).

But the Trib was quite correct as to the reason for war.

The South seceded to protect chattel slavery and its belief that black persons were born to be enslaved.

Any other reason advanced by defenders of secession is simply Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes for the truth.

The people know the cause of the fratricidal strife. The party, which, in the interests of a barbarous institution, has governed the country for the last 40 years, was beaten in the November election. The verdict of the people which does not touch a single one of the rights of any man, guarantied by the fundamental law, forbids the extension of that barbarous institution into national territory as yet uncursed by its blighting presence. This is the cause of the rebellion which months of effort has ripened into the bloody strife this day commenced! This and nothing else — this determination of a meagre minority to rule a powerful majority — this deification of Human Slavery as the guiding principle and polar star of a free people — are the dragon’s teeth which, sown in a pestilent soil, have produced armed men.

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