Already, as if quite certain that the great Northwest would
speedily withdraw from the Eastern United States, our people are discussing the
eventualities of such a momentous occurrence. The most vehement opposition to
the admission of any of the non-slaveholding States, whose people have invaded
our country and shed the blood of our people, into this Confederacy, is quite
manifest in this city. But Virginia, “the Old Mother,” would, I think, after
due hesitation, take back her erring children, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and
perhaps one or two more, if they earnestly desired to return to her parental
protection.
Some of the Cotton States might revolt at such a project, and
even the cabinet might oppose the scheme of adding several powerful free States
to the Confederacy; but it would not all suffice to prevent it, if they desire
to join us. It is true, the constitution would have to be modified, for it is
not to be supposed that slaves would be held in any of the States referred to;
but then slavery would be recognized by its proper term, and ample guarantees
would be agreed upon by the great free States which abandon the United States
on the issue of emancipation.
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, added to the thirteen
Confederate States, would speedily constitute us a people of sufficient
military power to defy the menaces of the arms of the greatest powers of the
earth; and the commercial and agricultural prosperity of the country would
amaze the world.
I am of the opinion that Virginia, Maryland, Delaware,
Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri would form a league
of union with Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, even if the rest of the Southern
States were to reject the alliance. But who can foresee the future through the
smoke of war, and amid the clash of bayonets? Nevertheless, division and
subdivision would relieve all of the burden of debt, for they would
repudiate the greater part, if not the whole, of the indebtedness of both the
present governments, which has been incurred in ravaging the country and
cutting each other's throats. The cry will be: “We will not pay the price of
blood — for the slaughter of our brothers!”
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 259-60
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