So why did his political opponents consistently accuse him of being an black-loving abolitionist? Why do all the Declarations of Causes that the southern states issued overwhelmingly cite abolitionism and the threat to slavery caused by Lincoln's election to be their reason for seceding?
One seems to forget that slavery was protected under Federal law, and Northern States were nullifying Federal law. It was their right in my opinion. However, the Southern States interred the Union as Slave States, and the peaceful harmony no longer existed. What was their recourse? Stay in Union and have the Brown's of the world terrorize them, or leave? I'm not conceding to this being the only reason, just one.
I find it entertaining that it was fine and dandy to marry a women with a mole on her face, which conferred a privilege to bitch about it on a later date. Not to mention, the Northern involvement and profit from slavery. Hypocrites
No wonder they cry aloud for the glorious Union; they have the same reason for praising it, that craftsmen of Ephesus had for shouting, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians," whom all Asia and the world worshipped. By it they got their wealth; by it they levy tribute on honest labor. It is true that this policy has been largely sustained by the South; it is true that the present tariff was sustained by an almost unanimous vote of the South; but it was a reduction - a reduction necessary from the plethora of the revenue; but the policy of the North soon made it inadequate to meet the public expenditure, by an enormous and profligate increase of the public expenditure; and at the last session of Congress they brought in and passed through the House the most atrocious tariff bill that ever was enacted, raising the present duties from twenty to two hundred and fifty per cent above the existing rates of duty. That bill now lies on the table of the Senate. It was a master stroke of abolition policy; it united cupidity to fanaticism, and thereby made a combination which has swept the country. There were thousands of protectionists in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New-York, and in New-England, who were not abolitionists. There were thousands of abolitionists who were free traders. The mongers brought them together upon a mutual surrender of their principles. The free-trade abolitionists became protectionists; the non-abolition protectionists became abolitionists. The result of this coalition was the infamous Morrill bill - the robber and the incendiary struck hands, and united in joint raid against the South. Toomps