. Abraham Lincoln; a history . upon the people through an electionfor delegates, there came an inevitable growth andculmination of excitement. In this election it wasthe audacious, the ambitious, the reckless elementwhich took the lead, gathered enthusiasm, andorganized success. It must be remembered that this result wasreached under specially favoring conditions. Thelong slavery discussion had engendered a broodingdiscontent, and the baseless complaint of sectionalinjustice had grown through mere repetition fromclamor into belief. The Presidential election leftbehind it the sharp sting of def
. Abraham Lincoln; a history . upon the people through an electionfor delegates, there came an inevitable growth andculmination of excitement. In this election it wasthe audacious, the ambitious, the reckless elementwhich took the lead, gathered enthusiasm, andorganized success. It must be remembered that this result wasreached under specially favoring conditions. Thelong slavery discussion had engendered a broodingdiscontent, and the baseless complaint of sectionalinjustice had grown through mere repetition fromclamor into belief. The Presidential election leftbehind it the sharp sting of defeat. Not in formand in law, but nevertheless in essential character-istics, the South was controlled by a landed aris-tocracy. The great plantation masters dominatedsociety and politics; there was no diffused andhealthy popular action, as in the town-meetingsof New England. Even the slaves of the wealthyproprietors spoke with habitual contempt of the poor white trash who lived in mean cabins andhoed their own corn and GENKIJAL COliii. /. THE COTTON REPUBLICS 177 Except in Gleorgia the opposition to the seces- chap. programme was either hopelessly feeble orentirely wanting. The Bell and Douglas factionshad bitterly denounced Lincoln and the Repub-licans during the Presidential campaign. Disarmedby their own words, they could not now defendthem. The seaboard towns and cities of the South,jealous of the commercial supremacy of the North,anticipated in independence and free trade a newgrowth and a rich prosperity. Over all floated theconstant dream of Southern Utopias—an indefiniteexpansion southward into a great slave these various causes the election in most in-stances went by default. Three special agencies cooperated with markedeffect to stimulate the movement. Very early eachCotton State sent commissioners to each of theother Southern States, and in every case the mostactive and zealous secessionists were of course ap-pointed. These
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