The Real Cause of the U.S. Civil War


Robert Hosea to Abraham Lincoln, February 7, 1861


Page 10





favorable to their extreme views on slavery,

and the determination was made to break

up the Convention in a row, disrupt the

party, run Douglas in the north and a

favorite of their own in the south; and

by these means throw the election into the

"house" where they hoped by non-agreement

to settle the election in the senate,

where they hoped and elect a creature of their own.

What followed is a matter of history,

the explosion of the Convention at Charleston,

the double-headed farce at Baltimore,

and the selection of "Joseph Lane" of Oregon

to be the man to be elected in the senate

are well known.

Their dismay was great when

the result of the election was known. The

free trade conspirators up to the election had

been so successful in their schemes, that

they could scarcely realize that their own

folly was mainly instrumental in ele-

vating to the Presidential chair, the man,

whom, last of all men, they would have pre-

ferred, one who was a regular old line

Henry Clay Whig of the purest stamp.

They attribute to you High protection procliv-

ities, and hurl their hate and venom at

you for this reason; not that they fear ag-

gression against slavery, for they know






Hosea Letter Page 10