Slavery with us is no abstraction—but a great and vital fact. Without it our every comfort would be taken from us. Our wives, our children, made unhappy—education, the light of knowledge—all all lost and our people ruined for ever. Nothing short of separation from the Union can save us.
—ARTHUR PERONNEAU HAYNE TO
PRESIDENT JAMES BUCHANAN,
DECEMBER 22, 1860
We must settle this question now, whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the government whenever they choose. If we fail it will go far to prove the incapability of the people to govern themselves.
—ABRAHAM LINCOLN, REMARK TO
PRIVATE SECRETARY JOHN HAY,
MAY 1861
Is any thing worth it? This fearful sacrifice—this awful penalty we pay for war?
—MARY BOYKIN CHESNUT,
JOURNAL, JULY 26, 1864