The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, April, 1862: Devoted To Literature And National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, April, 1862: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Try another territorial aspect of the case. There is a bed of
mountains abutting on the left bank of the Ohio, which covers
all Western Virginia, and all Eastern Kentucky, to the width,
from east to west, in those two States, of three or four hundred
miles. These mountains, stretching south-westwardly, pass
entirely through Tennessee, cover the back parts of North
Carolina and Georgia, heavily invade the northern part of
Alabama, and make a figure even in the back parts of South
Carolina and the eastern parts of Mississippi, having a course
of perhaps seven or eight hundred miles, and running far south
of the northern limit of profitable cotton culture. It is a
region of 300,000 square miles, trenching upon eight or nine
slave States, though nearly destitute of slaves itself;
trenching upon at least five cotton States, though raising no
cotton itself. The western part of Maryland and two-thirds of
Pennsylvania are embraced in the north-eastern continuation of
this remarkable region. Can anything that passes under the name
of statesmanship be more preposterous than the notion of
permanent peace on this continent, founded on the abnegation of
a common and paramount government, and the idea of the
supercilious domination of the cotton interest and the
slave-trade over such a mountain empire, so located and so
peopled?
As a further proof of the utter impossibility of peace except
under a common government, and at once an illustration of the
import of what has just been stated, and the suggestion of a new
and insuperable difficulty, let it be remembered that this great
mountain region, throughout its general course, is more loyal to
the Union than any other portion of the slave States. It is the
mountain counties of Maryland that have held treason in check in
that State; it is forty mountain counties in Western Virginia
that have laid the foundation of a new and loyal commonwealth;
it is the mountain counties of Kentucky that first and most
eagerly took up arms for the Union; it is the mountain region of
Tennessee that alone, in that dishonored State, furnished
martyrs to the sacred cause of freedom; it is the mountain
people of Alabama that boldly stood out against the Confederate
government till their own leaders deserted and betrayed them.
It is not a strong point, but it is worth noting, that even in South
Carolina there is an Alleghanian area of 4,074 square miles, equal to
the State of Connecticut, in which the diminished proportion of slaves,
with other local causes, are sufficient to indicate the Union feeling
which indeed struggles there in secret. These counties are:--
FREE. SLAVE.
Spartanburgh, 18,311 8,039
Greenville, 13,370 6,691
Anderson, 13,867 7,514
Pickens, 13,105 3,679
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