The Real Cause of the U.S. Civil War

Steve Hurlbut to Abraham Lincoln, March 27, 1861


Page 6


the establishment of a Southern Republic.

They expect a golden era, when Charleston

shall be a great Commercial Emporium

& control for the South as New York does

for the North.

Neither is it of any use to appeal to

the people - meaning by that term the

class of voters engaged in labour and oc-

cupations.

The very features of the Constitution of

the Southern Confederacy, which perpet-

uate the Control of the Educated and wealthy

few, over the uneducated and working

many, & are most most repulsive to us, are

most agreeable to them -- in truth there

is not in South Carolina any people

or any popular thought or power

of popular will.

There may be now, there certainly will

be in the hereafter a people in Georgia

and Alabama & perhaps in Northern

Mississippi, but there is none in S. Carolina.


The power in that state and in the Southern

Confederacy is now in the hands of the

Conservatives - of men who desire no war,

seek no armed collision, but hope and

expect peaceable separation. I believe

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Hurlbut Letter Page 6