WEST POINT, December 21, 1860
DEAR SISTER: We are on general review in mineralogy and geology preparatory to our last January examination, and, possibly, our very last. These are delightful studies, and the method of instruction here renders us very familiar with minerals. Each rock has now its story for us. . . . The political horizon is very black. Today’s papers inform us that South Carolina has seceded. The veil behind which Webster sought not to penetrate has been “rent in twain,” and secession, with its evils, is now a reality. Let her go. She has been a pest, an eye-sore, an abomination ever since she entered the Union. Were it not that her example may become contagious, few would regret her course; but, in the present excited state of feeling at the South, there is imminent danger that the whole South will drift into the terrible gulf which secession opens before them. I believe in Union, but South Carolina has taken the initiative, and she is responsible for whatever follows, and posterity will hold her Every friend of freedom will execrate her course. War, I believe, must speedily follow, and by her act. The papers say, “Buchanan has ordered the commandant of Fort Moultrie to surrender if attacked”; if true, what a traitor! Floyd has sent twenty-five thousand stand of arms to different Southern posts within the past year, and for what? Certainly not for the use of soldiers garrisoning them. What, then, is the inference? That they shall be convenient for secession. The Administration must be deeply implicated in this plot to destroy the government. Its conduct can not be explained otherwise. I heartily rejoice that Abraham Lincoln is elected, and that we have such a noble set of Republicans at Washington to meet this critical emergency. As for myself, I am ambitious, and desire fame, but I will stand by the right; for what is the worth of fame when purchased by dishonor? God orders or suffers all things.
SOURCE: Peter Smith Michie, The Life and Letters of Emory Upton, p. 29-30
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