Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant - The Original Classic Edition. Grant Ulysses

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into a war the end of which no man could foretell. With a Democrat elected by the unanimous vote of the Slave States, there could be no pretext for secession for

       four years. I very much hoped that the passions of the people would subside in that time, and the catastrophe be averted altogether; if it

       was not, I believed the country would be better prepared to receive the shock and to resist it. I therefore voted for James Buchanan for President. Four years later the Republican party was successful in electing its candidate to the Presidency. The civilized world has

       learned the consequence. Four millions of human beings held as chattels have been liberated; the ballot has been given to them; the free schools

       of the country have been opened to their children. The nation still lives, and the people are just as free to avoid social intimacy with the blacks as ever they were, or as they are with white people.

       While living in Galena I was nominally only a clerk supporting myself and family on a stipulated salary. In reality my position was

       different. My father had never lived in Galena himself, but had established my two brothers there, the one next younger than myself in charge of the business, assisted by the youngest. When I went there it was my father's intention to give up all connection with the business

       himself, and to establish his three sons in it: but the brother who had

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       really built up the business was sinking with consumption, and it was

       not thought best to make any change while he was in this condition. He lived until September, 1861, when he succumbed to that insidious disease which always flatters its victims into the belief that they are growing better up to the close of life. A more honorable man never transacted business. In September, 1861, I was engaged in an employment which required all my attention elsewhere.

       During the eleven months that I lived in Galena prior to the first call

       for volunteers, I had been strictly attentive to my business, and had

       made but few acquaintances other than customers and people engaged in the same line with myself. When the election took place in November,

       1860, I had not been a resident of Illinois long enough to gain citizenship and could not, therefore, vote. I was really glad of this

       at the time, for my pledges would have compelled me to vote for Stephen A. Douglas, who had no possible chance of election. The contest was really between Mr. Breckinridge and Mr. Lincoln; between minority rule and rule by the majority. I wanted, as between these candidates, to see

       Mr. Lincoln elected. Excitement ran high during the canvass, and torch-light processions enlivened the scene in the generally quiet streets of Galena many nights during the campaign. I did not parade with either party, but occasionally met with the "wide awakes"

       --Republicans--in their rooms, and superintended their drill. It was evident, from the time of the Chicago nomination to the close of the canvass, that the election of the Republican candidate would be the signal for some of the Southern States to secede. I still had hopes

       that the four years which had elapsed since the first nomination of a

       Presidential candidate by a party distinctly opposed to slavery

       extension, had given time for the extreme pro-slavery sentiment to cool

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       down; for the Southerners to think well before they took the awful leap which they had so vehemently threatened. But I was mistaken.

       The Republican candidate was elected, and solid substantial people of

       the Northwest, and I presume the same order of people throughout the entire North, felt very serious, but determined, after this event. It

       was very much discussed whether the South would carry out its threat to secede and set up a separate government, the corner-stone of which should be, protection to the "Divine" institution of slavery. For there were people who believed in the "divinity" of human slavery, as there

       are now people who believe Mormonism and Polygamy to be ordained by the

       Most High. We forgive them for entertaining such notions, but forbid their practice. It was generally believed that there would be a flurry; that some of the extreme Southern States would go so far as to pass

       ordinances of secession. But the common impression was that this step was so plainly suicidal for the South, that the movement would not spread over much of the territory and would not last long.

       Doubtless the founders of our government, the majority of them at least, regarded the confederation of the colonies as an experiment. Each

       colony considered itself a separate government; that the confederation was for mutual protection against a foreign foe, and the prevention of strife and war among themselves. If there had been a desire on the part of any single State to withdraw from the compact at any time while the number of States was limited to the original thirteen, I do not suppose there would have been any to contest the right, no matter how much the determination might have been regretted. The problem changed on the ratification of the Constitution by all the colonies; it changed still

       more when amendments were added; and if the right of any one State to

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       withdraw continued to exist at all after the ratification of the Constitution, it certainly ceased on the formation of new States, at least so far as the new States themselves were concerned. It was never possessed at all by Florida or the States west of the Mississippi, all

       of which were purchased by the treasury of the entire nation. Texas and the territory brought into the Union in consequence of annexation, were purchased with both blood and treasure; and Texas, with a domain greater than that of any European state except Russia, was permitted to retain

       as state property all the public lands within its borders. It would

       have been ingratitude and injustice of the most flagrant sort for this State to withdraw from the Union after all that had been spent and done to introduce her; yet, if separation had actually occurred, Texas must necessarily have gone with the South, both on account of her

       institutions and her geographical position. Secession was illogical as well as impracticable; it was revolution.

       Now, the right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to

       relieve themselves of the oppression, if they are strong enough, either by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable. But any people or part of a people who resort to this remedy, stake their lives, their property, and every

       claim for protection given by citizenship--on the issue. Victory, or the conditions imposed by the conqueror--must be the result.

       In the case of the war between the States it would have been the exact truth if the South had said,--"We do not want to live with you Northern people any longer; we know our institution of slavery is obnoxious to you, and, as you are growing numerically stronger than we, it may at

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       some time in the future be endangered. So long as you permitted us to control the government,

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