Summary

This letter to the editor, signed by Augusta, argued that the Republicans were intent on not only limiting slavery in the territories but also eliminating it in the states. The writer considered the North and South complementary but cautioned that Southerners must unite against the Republican enemy "thundering at our own gates."

EXCERPT:

"Thus the conflict is BETWEEN THE STATES, or their systems of labor, slave or free; and they [Republicans] argue that THEY CANNOT EXIST PERMANENTLY IN THE SAME UNION. Why so? -- Do they conflict? Do they produce the same things? Do they impair the industry or lessen the employment of the other? No. They occupy different fields of labor. They are not hostile and rival, but subsidiary and mutually beneficial."

Full-text web version of newspaper

"Augusta's Democratic Party emphasized that slavery was the country's economic engine of success, protected in the territories by the Dred Scott decision, and they defended Stephen Douglas to the end as the best candidate to defeat Lincoln."