The Road to Disunion Secessionists at Bay 1776–1854 The Road to Disunion VOLUME I Secessionists at Bay 1776–1854 WILLIAM W FREEHLING Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Petaling Jaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1990 by William W Freehling First published in 1990 by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1991 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press, Inc Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Freehling, William W., 1935– The road to disunion / William W Freehling p cm Contents: v Secessionists at bay, 1776–1854 ISBN 978-0-19-505814-7; 978-0-19-507259-4 (PBK.) United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Causes Secession Southern States—Politics and government—1775–1865 United States—Politics and government—1815–1861 I Title E468.9.F84 1990 973.7′11—dc20 89–26511 CIP 10 12 14 13 11 Printed in the United States of America For Alison Preface Two decades ago, I envisioned a quick solution to an important mystery I would research the few months of the southern secession crisis, 1860–1 My findings would reveal short-run causes of disunion My chronicle would illuminate long-run reasons why the South strode down the road to disunion Those simplistic beginnings failed to anticipate secession’s complicated climax Manuscripts on disunion particularly exuded such a variety of Southerners as to shatter my imagined South Seeking more perspective than a culminating crisis could provide, I reluctantly took one step, then another back down the road to disunion Had I known that I would ultimately arrive in Thomas Jefferson’s era, I might never have left Abraham Lincoln’s But at this culminating moment, I rejoice at the extended odyssey backwards No shorter journey could have yielded this rich story My chief objection to previous accounts of the antebellum South, including my own, is that portraits tend to flatten out the rich varieties of southern types The South is sometimes interpreted as this, sometimes as that But whatever the interpretation, the image is usually of a monolith, frozen in its thisness or thatness The southern world supposedly thawed only once, in the so-called Great Reaction of the 1830s Then Thomas Jefferson’s South, which considered slavery a terminable curse, supposedly turned into John C Calhoun’s South, which considered enslavement a perpetual blessing Thereafter, little supposedly changed, little varied, little remained undecided Gone from this timeless flatland is the American nineteenth century’s exuberant essence: growth, movement, profusion of pilgrims, a chaotic kaleidoscope of regions, classes, religions, and ethnic groups The truth—the fresh understanding that makes a new epic of the antebellum South possible—is that before and after the mid-1830s in the South, as well as the North, change was omnipresent, varieties abounded, visions multiplied Antebellum Southerners constantly acted on their knowledge that their world was not set in stone, that many destinies beckoned, that clashes of sections and classes, of ossified cultures and raw frontiers divided South as well as nation Whenever someone declaims on a South, premodern or egalitarian republican or whatever, ask them which South is meant, and when? The answers begin a more informative analysis of a world so lushly various as to be a storyteller’s dream.1 Secessionists are the desperadoes in the Old South’s story They sought to forge a culture most historians assume had long since been consolidated—a region standing monolithically for slavery’s permanent glory They winced at fellow Southerners who clung to the Jeffersonian dream that slavery would slowly drain away, assuming the right conditions could be secured Between Calhoun’s unconditional desire to perpetuate slavery and Jefferson’s conditional hope to end the institution, so many Southerners fought for so many visions that secessionists lost and lost and lost, losing finally all confidence in winning After Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, this minority of the southern minority conspired to bring off a last gamble In 1861, to extremists’ amazement, disunion triumphed This is the tale of how and why vanquished secessionists became victors—and of a South which remained too divided for the victors to win their gamble with the sword While Yankees frequently people and lend perspective to this story of the southern road to disunion, my focus rarely deviates from the slaveholders’ domain The value of the regional concentration transcends the South, for in national mainstream politics an aggressively defensive slavocracy so often seized the offensive Outside the mainstream, northern extremists attacked first But antislavery Yankees began to capture the northern majority’s sympathy only after Southerners demanded national proslavery laws Both the Slavepower’s demands for legislative protection and the way the minority pushed demands through majoritarian processes violated northern senses of democratic government When issues changed from black slavery to white republicanism, from an unfortunate institution on the other section’s turf to unacceptable ultimatums about a common democratic government, Yankees stiffened into anti-southern postures.2 These southern drives for minority protection flowed partly out of fears that the South could not stand solid against the northern extreme The most committed slaveholders particularly worried about their less committed, less enslaved hinterlands lying close to the free North Concern about whether a free and open republican milieu could weaken despotism in lightly enslaved areas helps explain why a slaveholder minority, when facing a smaller abolitionist minority, continually offended Northerners’ majoritarian sensibilities with attempts to shutter off democratic challenges The irony was that the enslaved South was itself deeply into democratic cults As inegalitarian as slavery was, it also impelled southern variations on American nineteenth-century egalitarianism I here follow debates between southern-style and northern-style egalitarian republicans, as well as between Southerners and each other, that go beyond “mere” political history narrowly defined I hope to show that two antithetical abstract systems, democracy and despotism, when forced to rub against each other in close southern quarters, intriguingly intermeshed to shape not just a politics but a world I also seek to show that the narrative literary form, sadly maligned among professional historians these days, remains invaluable to humanize how a collision of abstractions helped produce the crisis of a people My narrative of the various Souths’ encounter with despotism and democracy remains unfinished at the end of this volume A subsequent volume will carry the story from the mid-1850s to the outbreak of war Much information in Volume II may add credibility to Volume I The main discussion of proslavery ideology, for example, had to be in Volume II because most of the South’s greatest proslavery writers published not during some fancied Great Reaction in the mid-1830s but twenty years later, uncomfortably close to the time of southern rebellion.3 That last-minute effort to forge a world, a world view, and a nation—the major theme in Volume II—reveals much about earlier clashes over the kind of world Southerners wanted So, too, Volume II’s discussion of Caribbean expansion, which South Carolina Disunionists rather opposed and southwestern Unionists usually favored, will illuminate earlier divisions between older and newer Deep Souths Still another important theme in my subsequent volume, the most secessionist South’s fear that Abraham Lincoln would build a Republican Party in the least secessionist South, will re-emphasize a key theme in this volume, the difference between the more southern and the more northern sections of the South over whether slavery should be terminated, always on the assumption that proper conditions could be obtained While Volumes I and II may someday reinforce each other, Volume I will least need reinforcement Early in American national history, earlier than historians’ conventional periodization indicates, clashing Souths wove patterns insidious to perpetual Union The resulting demand that the nation shore up the not-so-democratic institution of slavery came so to infest the southern-dominated Jackson movement as to define much of so-called Jacksonian “Democracy”—this years before the so- called Era of Sectional Controversy Subsequent events in the post-Jackson era more or less repeated, as human affairs will, patterns more or less repeated earlier The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was something of a repeat of Texas Annexation in 1845, just as annexation was something of a repeat of the Gag Rule Controversy of 1835–6 More repetitions of similar patterns brought on the secession crisis of 1860–1 The final crisis bore resemblances to and is easier to understand in the perspective of nullification/secession crises in 1850–2 and 1832–3 I look forward to recounting the climactic secession epic, the saga my younger shade found so elusive But the final acts, as I at last came to understand, become explicable only with their 85 years of antecedents This earlier story, on the other hand, will always stand on its own, as the tale of various Souths’ defining steps down the road to disunion I am grateful to institutions who helped me craft this volume The Guggenheim Foundation, the National Humanities Foundation, and the Horace Rackham School of the University of Michigan helped finance three years of research in southern archives A liberal teaching load at The Johns Hopkins University helped lighten more years of writing The greatest lighteners kept reassuring me that all would work when much was frustrating I am thinking of Jack and other colleagues at the Hopkins, of Anne and Craig and Joel—and especially of Alison These volumes are a pittance of what I dedicate to her William W Freehling The Johns Hopkins University July 4, 1989 Liberty’s birthday in the republic slaveholders helped to make Contents Prologue: The Spirit of Montgomery PART I A SWING AROUND THE SOUTHERN CIRCLE St Louis to New Orleans New Orleans to Charleston to Baltimore to St Louis PART II SOCIAL CONTROL IN A DESPOTS’ DEMOCRACY Mastering Consenting White Folk The Domestic Charade, I: Massa’s Act The Domestic Charade, II: Cuffee’s Act Democrats as Lynchers PART III CONDITIONAL TERMINATION IN THE EARLY UPPER SOUTH Conditional Termination in the Early Republic The Missouri Controversy Class Revolt in Virginia, I: Anti-Egalitarianism Attacked 10 Class Revolt in Virginia, II: Slavery Besieged 11 Not-So-Conditional Termination in the Northern Chesapeake PART IV NONDECISIVE DECISION IN SOUTH CAROLINA 12 Origins of South Carolina Eccentricity, I: Economic and Political Foundations 13 Origins of South Carolina Eccentricity, II: Cultural Foundations 14 The First Confrontation Crisis, I: Calhoun versus Jackson 15 The First Confrontation Crisis, II: South Carolina versus the South PART V THE GAG RULE AND THE POLITICS OF “MERE” WORDS 16 The Reorganization of Southern Politics 17 The Gag Rule, I: Mr Hammond’s Mysterious Motion 18 The Gag Rule, II: Mr Pinckney’s Controversial Compromise 19 The Gag Rule, III: Mr Johnson’s Ironic Intransigence PART VI THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS 20 Anti-Annexation as Manifest Destiny Russell’s Magazine, 249–50 Safety valve theory, 420–25, 431, 436, 442, 444–45, 478, 528 St Louis, Missouri, 19–22, 540 Scott, Winfield, 554 Seabrook, Whitemarsh, 520–23 Secession: and a South, 478–79 and the Border South, 17, 35 and the Compromise of 1850, 6, 499, 506 and Conditional Termination, 157 and a crisis mentality, 473–74 and the Deep South, 17 and the election of 1860, and the gag rule, 337–38 and the Harper’s Ferry raid, 178 in the Middle South, 18 and the Nullification Controversy, 258, 285 and the Old-New South, 516–19 and the Southern Conventions, 481, 483–84 and the southern Democrats, 4–5 and states’ rights, 258, 279–82 and Texas annexation, 407 See also name of specific person or state Sectionalism: and Congress, 493 and egalitarianism/elitism, 450–51 and Jacksonian Democracy, 560–65 and majority rule, 451–52 overview of the development of, 449–52 and Texas annexation, 449–52 and the Whig party, 450–52, 560–63 See also Compromise of 1850 Senate, U S.: control of the, 149, 443, 461, 508 See also name of specific issue or person Seward, William H., 491, 555 Simms, William Gilmore, 232, 236–46, 248–50, 252 Slave auctions, 21–22, 465, 495–96, 525–26 Slave drain: and the Border South, 23–24, 35, 134, 464, 468, 471 and Conditional Termination, 134, 137 and the Deep South, 24 explanation of the, 23–24 and the Middle South, 23–24 and the Old-New South, 392 and the plantation system, 23–24 and post-nati emancipation, 134 and private slave sales, 471 South Carolina as an exception to the, 25 and Texas annexation, 392, 419–23, 443–45 and the Wilmot Proviso, 474 Slave drivers, 43, 67–69, 216 Slaveholders/planters: and abolitionism, 290–92 average number of slaves held by, 18 blacks as, 43–44, 64 in the Border South, 18, 34–35 characteristics of, 27–28 diversity among, 17 and egalitarianism/elitism, 40–50 in the Middle South, 18 and the Mississippi Slaveholders Conventions, 480–81 and murder, 81–82, 84–85 wives of, 54–57, 67 See also Domestic Institution, slavery as a; name of specific state, person, or issue Slave insurrections: and abolitionism, 293 and colonization, 160 and Conditional Termination, 78–81, 85–86, 99, 126, 178–85, 186 and dissent, 107 and the gag rule, 323 Jefferson’s views about, 126 and judicial system, 501 and lynchings, 110–13 and outsiders, 111–13 and republicanism, 466–67 and slavery as a Domestic Institution, 180–81, 247 and white insurrectionists, 99–106 See also Turner, Nat; Vesey [Denmark] Conspiracy Slavery in the territories See Kansas-Nebraska Act; Louisiana Purchase Territory; Missouri Compromise; Northwest Ordinance; Wilmot Proviso; name of specific territory Smith, Ashbel, 368–69, 381–82, 385, 394–98 Smith, William M.O., 468–69 Smith, William R., 150, 152, 193 South Carolina: and abolitionism, 294–95 absenteeism in, 29, 215–16, 225–31 apportionment in, 220–22, 268, 531–32 and a South, 520 blacks in, 216, 224 cabinetmakers in, 217, 219 characteristics of, 28–30, 214–16, 220–23, 229–30, 276 in the colonial/revoluntionary eras, 134–36 and colonization, 159–61, 272, 307 and the Compromise of 1808, 221–22, 231 and the Compromise of 1850, 510 Conditional Termination in, 134–36 conspiracies in, 520–23 cotton in, 28, 136, 220–21, 228, 255–57, 284–85 culture in, 229, 231–45, 250–51 curfews/patrols in, 225, 230 and the Democratic party, 231, 430 depopulation fears in, 457 dissent in, 107 and economic issues, 224–28, 231–32 and egalitarianism/elitism, 28–31, 164–65, 214, 220–21, 223, 276–77, 511, 531–32 elections in, 222–23, 268, 430 emigration from, 228, 255 English influence in, 29–30, 217, 219–20, 222–23, 225–26, 229–31, 252 exiles from, 232–45 extremism in, 213–14, 216, 254, 258, 272–75, 277, 279, 286, 480 family decay in, 226–28 fear of blacks in, 215, 250 field hands in, 229–30 fugitive slaves in, 78 and the gag rule, 337–52 heroes in, 332 identity in, 240, 249–52 and insiders/outsiders, 236, 251, 279 isolation of, 486, 528 legislature in, 222, 254 lynching in, 211 and majority rule, 273, 281, 519, 520 malaria in, 214–16, 230 and the Mexican war, 457–58 and the middle class, 249–51 migration from, 272 northern influences on, 250–51 nullification in, 272–75 and the Old-New South, 220–21, 223, 228, 231–32, 245, 252, 519–23, 528–34 overseers in, 216, 226–27, 230, 250 as part of the Deep South, 17 patriarchy in, 229–30, 236–45 poor whites in, 215 primogeniture/entail in, 226 republicanism in, 29, 107, 213–14, 220, 223, 252, 268 and revolution, 252–53 rice in, 136, 214–15, 221, 225–26, 255 and secession, 3, 6, 30–31, 157, 258, 273, 276, 279, 316, 478, 519–23, 528–34 and the slave drain, 25 slaveholders/planters in, 28–29, 222, 228, 230, 250, 276–77 slave population in, 215–216, 220–21 slavery as a Domestic Institution in, 229–30 and slavery in the territories, 457–458 and the Southern Conventions, 480–83, 485 state constitution in, 31 suffrage in, 220, 222, 231 and tariffs, 255–57, 269, 272–75 Unconditional Perpetualism in, 150, 181, 195–96, 478–79 violence in, 211 See also Charleston, South Carolina; Nullification Controversy; name of specific person Southern Conventions, 479–86 Southern Democrats: and a South, 520 and the Compromise of 1850, 500, 507, 509 diversity among the, and economic issues, 362 and the election of 1844, 430, 437–38 and the election of 1848, 475 and the election of 1852, 554 and fugitive slaves, 536–37 and the gag rule, 324, 328–31, 333, 336, 339, 346–49, 351–52, 451 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, 536–37, 550–65 and nationalism, 362 and popular sovereignty, 500 and secession, 4–5 and Texas annexation, 413–15, 424–27, 431, 434–35, 441–43, 446–47 and Tyler, 425 and Van Buren, 425, 428 and the Wilmot Proviso, 475 Sparks, Jared, 156–57, 186, 497 Spoils system/patronage, 268–69, 450, 491, 517, 519 States’ rights: and abolitionism, 297 and colonization, 274–75 and the Democratic party, 296 and deportation, 274–75 and the diffusion argument, 155 and the election of 1828, 259–61 and the election of 1840, 358 and the gag rule, 333–34, 336, 350 and the Nullification Controversy, 257–59, 274–75, 279–82, 296 and the Opposition party, 341, 357 and the reorganization of southern politics, 296–99, 305 and secession, 258, 279–82 and tariffs, 278–79 and the Whig party, 341, 358, 362, 364 See also name of specific person Stephens, Alexander, 5, 441–42, 448, 461, 476–77, 479, 504, 523–24, 559 Stephens, Linton, 65, 70, 84, 106 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 40, 89, 241–45 Summers, George, 186–87, 512 Tallmadge, James, Jr., 144–54, 289, 458–59 Tappan, Arthur, 115, 117 Tappan, Lewis, 290, 383–84, 395–96 Tariff of 1816, 273 Tarriff of 1824, 257 Tariff of 1828, 257, 260, 277 Tariff of 1832, 277–79 Tariff of 1842, 284 Tariffs: and the Border South, 282 and the budget surplus, 274–75 and the Compromise Tariff, 285–86 and cotton, 184–85, 255–57 and the Deep South, 282 and the election of 1828, 260 and the election of 1844, 436 enforcement of, 279, 282–83, 285–86 and extremism, 283 and the Forty Bale theory, 255–57, 285 and the general welfare clause, 257–58, 274–75 and majority rule, 279, 285–86 and the Nullification Controversy, 255–57, 259, 274–86 and outsiders/insiders, 279 and the plantation system, 23 and the reorganization of southern politics, 271 and states’ rights, 278–79 and the Verplanck Bill, 283–85 and Whig party, 284 See also Nullification Controversy Taylor, Zachary, 456, 476–77, 479, 490–93 Tennessee: and apportionment, 164 dissent in, 108–9, 111–13 egalitarianism/elitism in, 164 and fugitive slaves, 503 judicial system for blacks in, 108–9 as part of the Middle South, 17 and presidential elections, 300, 340, 437, 441 and secession, 18 slave insurrections in, 111–13 slave population in, 132 Whigs in, 441 Texas: abolitionism in, 374–76, 378–82 and the boundary dispute with Mexico, 455–61, 488–89, 496–97, 499–500 and the Compromise of 1850, 488–89, 496–97, 499–500, 508–9 economic issues in, 367 labor problems in, 367, 372, 373–74, 397, 405–6 and the Old-New South, 521 as part of the Deep South, 17 and secession, 3–4 slave population of, 367 and the Southern Conventions, 481 See also Texas annexation; Mexican Cession Texas annexation: and the Alabama Letter, 435–37 and American military protection from Mexico, 405–7 and the Benton plan, 446–47 and the Brown Amendment, 440–46, 448, 451 Calhoun’s negotiations concerning, 407–13 chauvinism in, 364–65 and the compensation issue, 378 congressional decision about, 440–52 and the Democratic party, 407, 424–26, 431, 441, 447–48 and the diffusion argument, 195, 418–25 and egalitarianism/elitism, 451 and the election of 1844, 412, 425, 445, 526–39 and extremism, 393, 413, 427 and the Hammet Letter, 411–13, 417 and land speculation, 373–76 and majority rule, 427–28, 431–33, 444–48 and Manifest Destiny, 355–71, 409, 412 and Mexico’s reaction to Texas annexation, 449 and the Missouri Compromise, 151, 440 and the northern Democrats, 410–13, 431, 439, 446–47, 451 and the Old-New South, 392 and outsiders/insiders, 377–78 and the Pakenham Letter, 413 as a political issue, 425, 526–39 and ratification of a treaty, 405–6, 408–10, 431–33 and the reorganization of southern politics, 402–3, 407 and republicanism, 352, 431–33 and the safety valve theory, 420–25, 431, 444–45 and the salutary neglect by Mexico, 365, 370–71 and secession, 407 and sectionalism, 449–52 significance of the controversy about, 352, 355–56 and the slave drain, 392, 419–23, 443–45 and slavery as a Peculiar Institution, 356 and the southern Democrats, 413, 415, 424–27, 431, 434–35, 441–43, 446–47 Texans’ attitudes about, 369–71, 397 and the Texas War of Independence, 365 and the three-fifths clause, 410–11 and the Tyler administration, 388–401, 409, 431–33, 440, 443, 447–48, 451 and the Walker thesis, 418–23 and the Whig party, 410, 412, 426–43, 447–48, 451, 558, 561–62 and the Yates letter, 381–82 See also name of specific person Texas annexation and England: and American reaction to England’s initial involvement, 385–401 and Andrews’ trip to England, 381–85 and anti-English sentiment, 405–6, 414–16 and Calhoun’s negotiations, 408–13 and the compensation issue, 378, 394–95 and the correspondence leakage to Upshur, 403–4 and the Diplomatic Act, 434 and the election of 1844, 433–35 Elliot’s role in, 378–82, 449 and the initial involvement of England, 368–71, 380–81 and Lord Aberdeen’s role, 383–85, 394–95, 408–10, 414–15, 433–34 and the Pakenham Letter, 408–10, 414–15, 434 and the Upshur strategy, 392–94, 433–35 and the World Antislavery Convention, 382–84 and the Yates letter, 381–82 Thomas, Gertrude, 52–53, 56–57 Thomas, Jesse B., 152–54 Thompson, Waddy, 344–46, 421–22, 457 Three-fifths clause, 146–48, 153–56, 170, 274, 294, 342, 410–11, 450, 559 Toombs, Robert, 436, 479, 492, 504, 523–24, 527 Trescot, William Henry, 251, 515, 532–33 Tucker, Beverley, 297, 316, 318, 391–93, 397–98, 435, 483–86, 520 Turner, Nat, 64, 162, 178–86, 273 Turner, Squire, and family, 470 Trist, Nicholas, 459 Tyler, John: becomes President, 363 cabinet of, 364, 391 and Clay, 363 and Conditional Termination, 151 and the Democratic party, 433 and economic issues, 362–64 and the election of 1836, 300, 358 and the election of 1840, 360–63 and the election of 1844, 433 and extremism, 356 and Green, 385 and Jackson, 433 and nationalism, 363–64 and nullification, 357 and the Opposition party, 339, 357 personal characteristics of, 357 and the safety valve argument, 421 and secession, 281 senatorial resignation of, 357 and the southern Democrats, 425 and states’ rights, 357 switches parties, 357 and tariffs, 271 and Texas annexation, 356–57, 368–71, 397–98, 405, 409, 419, 421, 425, 431–33, 440, 443, 447–48, 451 and Tucker, 483 and Upshur, 363–64, 391 and the vice presidency, 358, 360, 363 and the Whig party, 364, 410 Uncle Remus, 85–87, 96 Uncle Tom’s Cabin [Stowe], 89, 241–45 Unconditional Perpetualism, 274, 286, 468, 479 See also name of specific state or person Upshur, Abel P.: and abolitionism, 391–93, 399 ambitions of, 393, 403, 406–7 appointed Secretary of the Navy, 364, 391 appointed Secretary of State, 364, 371, 382 and Calhoun, 357, 359, 388 and Clay, 359 death of, 407 and egalitarianism/elitism, 173, 175, 388–89, 391–93, 451 and Green, 393–94 influence of, 357, 364, 371, 391, 401 as an intellectual, 390–91, 393, 514 and majority rule, 444 and nationalism, 363–64 and the Pakenham Letter, 408 personal appearance of, 389 personal/professional background of, 388–89 and reform, 391 and the reorganization of southern politics, 390–93, 401–3, 407 and the slave drain, 421 and Texas annexation, 386, 388, 392, 393–94, 397–98, 400–407, 421, 424, 433, 447, 451 and Tucker letter, 391–93, 483 and Tyler, 363–64, 391 and Van Buren, 333, 358, 390 and Virginia politics, 173, 175, 193, 389–90 and the Whig party, 358 Utah, 460–61, 488, 496, 500, 507–10 Van Buren, Martin: and the Border South, 429 and Calhoun, 413 and the Democratic party, 413–14, 477 and the Eaton affair, 270 and egalitarianism/elitism, 450–51 and the election of 1828, 267 and the election of 1836, 299–301, 339–40, 345 and the election of 1840, 345–46, 358–63 and the election of 1844, 412, 426–27, 429–30 and the election of 1848, 477–78 and the gag rule, 324, 333, 335, 339, 341–42, 411–12 and the Hammet Letter, 411–13, 417, 428 and Jackson, 267, 295–96, 415, 417 and majority rule, 429 and Manifest Destiny, 412 and the Opposition party, 333, 339–40 and the reorganization of southern politics, 298–301 and the South, 296, 303, 305–6, 339–40, 413, 425, 428–29 and states’ rights, 281, 296 and Texas annexation, 367–68, 411–13, 415, 417, 419, 425–28, 431, 451 and Upshur, 358, 390 and the Whig party, 341–42 and the Wilmot Proviso, 477–78 Van Zandt, Isaac, 368–69, 371, 382, 396–98, 403, 405, 431 Verplanck Bill, 283–85 Vesey [Denmark] Conspiracy, 79–82, 160, 179, 224, 254 Virginia: abolition in, 130–31 apportionment in, 164, 169–77, 178, 187–88, 190, 512–15 characteristics of, 30–31, 165 in the colonial/revoluntionary eras, 134 and colonization, 188–89, 194–95 and the color-blind theory, 191–92 and compensation, 183 Conditional Termination in, 162–96 and the constitutional convention of 1829, 162–63, 170–77, 186, 389–90, 512 and deportation, 181–82, 189–90, 194–95, 274 and the diffusion argument, 185–86, 195 dissent in, 107 economic issues in, 31, 187, 191–92 egalitarianism/elitism in, 31, 162–77, 186–96, 272, 511–15 free blacks in, 31, 131, 189–90, 194, 199, 272 and fugitive slaves, 503–4 housing in, 166–69 legislative action in, 181–90, 194 loyalty politics in, 512–13 and nullification, 281 and the Old-New South, 171–77, 511–15 and outsiders, 31, 186 as part of the Middle South, 17 plantation system in, 31 post-nati emancipation in, 182–85 resentment of national power of, 147–48 and secession, 4, 18, 31, 281 slaveholders in, 34, 199, 277 slave population in, 165–66, 199, 462, 464, 489 Slavery Debate of 1832 in, 181–95, 272–73 and the Southern Conventions, 481 state constitution in, 31, 169–70 and the Virginia Dynasty, 147–48 white dissent in, 102–3 yeomen in, 31 Walker, Robert J., 369, 404, 418–24, 429, 443, 447 Waller, John S., 470–71 Washington, D C See District of Columbia; Gag rule Washington, George, 159, 167 Webster, Daniel, 300, 304, 327, 333, 339, 363, 364, 368 Weld, Theodore Dwight, 89, 290, 294 Weston, Plowden, 107 Whig party: and the Border South, 340–41 and the Compromise of 1850, 490–93, 507–10 and congressional control, 443, 493 constituency of the, 361 death of the, 560–63 and the Deep South, 340–41 and the election of 1836, 340–41, 561 and the election of 1840, 360–63, 561 and the election of 1844, 426–39, 561–62 and the election of 1848, 476–77, 561 and the election of 1852, 554 expels Tyler, 364 and the gag rule, 334, 351–52, 451 Jacksonian Democracy compared with the, 560–63 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, 536, 553–60 and loyalty politics, 437 and majority rule, 429 and the media, 491–92 and the Mexican war, 456–57 and the Middle South, 340–41 and the Missouri Compromise, 153 and nationalism, 358–60 in the North, 340–41 and the No Territory motto, 456–57, 460, 490, 492–93, 510, 561 and the Opposition party, 333 platform of the, 560–64 and popular sovereignty, 491 and the reorganization of southern politics, 297–99 and the safety valve theory, 436 and sectionalism, 450–52 and slavery in the territories, 456–57, 476 and the Southern Conventions, 479 and states’ rights, 341, 358, 362, 364 and tariffs, 284 and Texas annexation, 410, 412, 426–43, 447–48, 451, 558, 561–62 and Van Buren, 341–42 and the Wilmot Proviso, 460–61 White, Hugh Lawson, 271, 300, 324, 339, 358, 437 Wickliffe, Robert, Jr., 464–66 Wilmot Proviso: and Clay [Cassius], 472–74 and the Compromise of 1850, 494–95, 500, 507–8 and the Democratic party, 460–61 and egalitarianism/elitism, 461 and election of 1848, 475–79 and extremism, 459 introduction of the, 458–59 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, 551 and Mexican Cession lands, 458–74 and the northern Democrats, 459 and the Old-New South, 525 and outsiders/insiders, 472–73 and popular sovereignty, 475–76 and racism, 459 and the slave drain, 474 southern reaction to the, 459–74 and the Whig party, 460–61 Wilson, John, 160, 254 Wisconsin, 138–41 Wise, Henry, 332, 334–36, 350–51, 359–60, 388–89, 513–15, 523, 527 Woodcraft [Simms], 241–45 Woodward, C Vann, 245, 249 Woolman, John, 134, 146 World Antislavery Convention, 382–84 Wright, Silas, 428–29, 438 Yancey, William Lowndes, 4, 132, 534–35 Yulee, David, 481, 503 *Quotes printed in italics connote conversations closely based on, but not always identical to, those in surviving sources See note *See map, p 366 *See map, p 366 .. .The Road to Disunion Secessionists at Bay 1776– 1854 The Road to Disunion VOLUME I Secessionists at Bay 1776– 1854 WILLIAM W FREEHLING Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi... these differences The further north the southern state, the cooler the clime, the fewer the slaves, and the lower the relative commitment to perpetuating bondage Or to put it the other way, the. .. of a South which remained too divided for the victors to win their gamble with the sword While Yankees frequently people and lend perspective to this story of the southern road to disunion, my