The Differences Slavery Made: A Close Analysis of Two American Communities
Alexander H. H. Stuart, "Alexander H. H. Stuart to Reverend W. G. Brownlow," August 18, 1856

Summary

Alexander H. H. Stuart represented Augusta in the state senate and served in Millard Fillmore's cabinet. In 1856 he hoped to establish a "Constitutional Union" party that would help save the country.

EXCERPT:

"For the first time in the history of our country the alarming feature of sectionalism has been infused into the party strifes of the day. The democratic party, abandoning all its old land-marks has assumed the position of a slavery-extension party, & the black Republican Party on the other hand stands pledges to opposite principles of slavery-limitation. The necessary result of this array of adverse factions is to present the northern & Southern states in an attitude of irreconcilable antagonism & to cause the election to turn on the single issue of slavery. In such an unequal contest as this, it requires no spirit of prophesy to foretell which faction would be the victor, nor is it more difficult to foresee what would be the direful consequences of defeat. The dissolution of the union must inevitably follow, with a train of disastrous consequences which no pen can describe & no imagination conceive."

Full-text web version of letter

Location of original letter

Stuart-Baldwin Papers (MS 228), Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia

Points of Analysis to this Data:

"Augusta's Whig Party emphasized that slavery was safer within the Union than without and that in the 1860 election slavery had become needlessly politicized. The Augusta Whigs moved to develop a new party around Constitutional Unionism."


Citation: Key = E063
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