I feel sick at heart at the state of the country. I have
been attempting, in my feeble way, to preach peace, and to rouse Christians to
their duty in staying the tide of passion and violence. I have received many
letters from men in the North, chiefly ministers, such as Drs. Hodge, Sprague,
Plumer, etc., giving the strongest assurance of moderate intentions on the part
of all the better people, assuring me, in the most solemn terms, that the
present congressmen from the Northern States do not represent the feelings of
the people there; and that if the South would unite calmness with firmness in
demanding the arrest of the Abolition agitation, they would succeed. I fully
believe this; I know it. But the people will not believe it. The very
Christians seem to have lost their senses with excitement, fear and passion;
and everything seems hurrying to civil war. Dr. Plumer says in his letter that
he is too desperate to make another attempt, having failed in his most solemn
and earnest appeals to the people to pause; and that he confidently expects to
see civil war of the most dreadful kind in a few months. I had been more
hopeful before this, believing that surely the people could not be so forsaken
of God and their own senses, as to go to cutting each others' throats for no
possible benefit. But when such men at the North as he and Dr. Prime say so, I
begin to think that they know the temper of the Northern people best, and,
therefore, see the danger. They still say that three-fourths of the people
there are for peace; but we seem to be given up of God, and the violent ones
have it all their own way. As for South Carolina, the little impudent vixen has
gone beyond all patience. She is as great a pest as the Abolitionists. And if I
could have my way, they might whip her to her heart's content, so they would
only do it by sea, and not pester us.
SOURCE: Thomas Cary Johnson, The Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney, p. 214-5
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