An uncompromising vote for the Abolition of the unfettered "Right to Choose"

Letter to the Editor
Dixie Times
Election eve, November 1860

I don't have a good word for Uncle Tom's Cabin. That book is all sentimental and sensational, befuddling the emotions of impressionable sorts, stirring up a lot of fool people to stick their noses where they don't belong. It's a slap against the good people of the South, God-fearing and law-abiding folks who know enough to tend to their own business and not bother other folks tending to theirs.

Slavery is an American institution. Washington and Jefferson owned slaves. I know my Constitution, and it counts the slave as only three-fifths of a man when it comes to figuring state taxes or representation in the House of Representatives. The slave ain't a person same as whites. The Supreme Court said so in 1857 about the slave Dred Scott. Slaves aren't included in the Constitution, they don't have rights -- that's what the Supreme Court said. And that's the law of the land.

The problem is with those crazy abolitionists, fanatics like that John Brown, who got what he deserved at Harper's Ferry. Them abolitionists don't got nothing better to do than to poke their noses into other folks' lives. Why they even steal our slaves and run them up north on what they call the underground railroad. Those slaves are our property -- hard-earned -- and nobody has the right to steal my property! And what's the government doing but talking?

Then those abolitionists get all hot and bothered about how we southerners treat our slaves. What do they know about it? Why, we southerners are the best thing that ever happened to the darkie. We civilized them and taught them Christian ways. We feed 'em and clothe 'em and put 'em up at night, caring for them like the children that they are. What would the darkie do if he were free? They aren't fit for living outside the plantation. They'd be lost on their own, and miserable. Do those ranting and raving abolitionists ever think of that?

Another thing: No Yankee has the right to interfere in a man's private life. That's in the Constitution, and so, too, is a man's right to his own religion, to interpret the Holy Bible as he sees fit. Didn't Paul tell slaves to obey their masters, and didn't he send the runaway slave Onesimus back to his master Philemon? This is a private matter between a man and God, a sacred thing, and that's American!

Well, that's about all I have to say, except that my ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War for the freedom to live as they choose. The South was built on slavery, and it'll die without it. I've got a good Christian wife and children to support. No northerner is going to put me to ruin, or tell me how to run my life.

If Abraham Lincoln is elected president, that's the last straw. The South would never have joined the Union without slavery, and we'll leave the Union to keep slavery. If we have to, we'll fight!

Sincerely,
A Southern Gentleman


footnote: This is a fictional letter, which is meant to have a ring of truth, and a measure of relevance, for today. To me, the abortion mills are akin to the plantations, while the pregnancy-help centers are akin to the underground railroad. To me, slavery -- denying the right to liberty -- or abortion -- denying the right to life -- aren't just any issue; they are fundamental rights necessary for the right to the pursuit of happiness.
Societies are defined -- indeed, they rise and fall -- by their commitment to honoring each and every human, especially the weak and the poor, who are so easily marginalized, so often hidden. When we fail in our sacred and civic duties to love the lost and the lonely, we ourselves become lost and lonely. As soon as we neglect to care for just one human, we begin to lose our humanity.
Abraham Lincoln, in his Second Inaugural Address of 1865, explicitly identified slavery as the cause of the Civil War, and also said: "Fondly do we hope -- fervently do we pray -- that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.'"
May God have mercy on us!