"[15] The Savannah
_Republican_, which at first declared the movement to be of no serious
intent, conceded, in 1859, that it was gaining favor, and that
nine-tenths of the Democratic Congressional Convention favored it, and
that even those who did not advocate a revival demanded the abolition of
the laws.[16] A correspondent from South Carolina writes, December 18,
1859: "The nefarious project of opening it [i.e., the slave trade] has
been started here in that prurient temper of the times which manifests
itself in disunion schemes.... My State is strangely and terribly
infected with all this sort of thing.... One feeling that gives a
countenance to the opening of the slave trade is, that it will be a sort
of spite to the North and defiance of their opinions."[17] The New
Orleans _Delta_ declared that those who voted for the slave-trade in
Congress were men "whose names will be honored hereafter for the
unflinching manner in which they stood up for principle, for truth, and
consistency, as well as the vital interests of the South."[18]
85. ~The Question in Congress.~ Early in December, 1856, the subject
reached Congress; and although the agitation was then new, fifty-seven
Southern Congressmen refused to declare a re-opening of the slave-trade
"shocking to the moral sentiment of the enlightened portion of mankind,"
and eight refused to call the reopening even "unwise" and
"inexpedient.
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