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April 18/61

Mrs. A.G. Higginson

My dear Agnes
I am glad to hear you are coming
to see us next week--Do not
come before Tuesday as I shall
be in Walpole.- You ought
to have more faith in coming
events. This is a great crisis
arranged for the eventual
destruction of the Slave aris=
tocracy as a governing power
both North & South. Slavery
must no doubt survive it, &
be treated & overcome by other, yet latent
remedies & forces. I am glad
the struggle has been brought on
as it has. This I thank the
most favorable in respect

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Four days after the first shots were fired in the American Civil War, Stephen Higginson Perkins wrote this letter which he called "a paper and preachment." He lectured Mrs. Higginson on the ways the War Between the States would encourage democracy by crushing the southern "slave aristocracy." He didn't foresee the war as an end to slavery. Rather, he was pleased to think the war would end what he viewed as southern political domination of the nation. Many Northerners thought Southern politicians had a choke-hold on the federal government. Given the structure of Congress, the more populous North had more representatives in the House of Representatives, while the balance of slave to free states evened the numbers in the Senate. Slavery reforms pushed through the House by Northern Representatives, usually died in the Senate inciting cries of political domination.

 

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Letter to Agnes Gordon Cochran Higginson regarding slavery and democracy

author   Stephen Higginson Perkins (1804-1877)
date   Apr 18, 1861
location   Boston, Massachusetts
height   7.5"
width   4.75"
process/materials   manuscript, paper, ink
item type   Personal Documents/Letter
accession #   #L05.105


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See Also...

Young Men's Christian Association Meeting

Some pages of letter to Francis Higginson from father Stephen Higginson II

"Union and Liberty"


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