But let me say to gentlemen who represent the great class of capitalists in the North--beware that you do not drive us into a separate system; for if you do, as certain as the decrees of heaven, you will be compelled to appeal to the sword to maintain yourselves at home.
Tappan warns Northern capitalists against pushing the South towards separation, suggesting dire consequences.
Share
More from Lewis Tappan
The power of the slaveholders, as we have already showed you, depends on the acquiescence of the major part of the white inhabitants in their domination.
The clog that has stayed the march of her people, the incubus that has weighed down her enterprise, strangled her commerce, kept sealed her exhaustless fountains of mineral wealth, and paralyzed her arts, manufactures and improvement, is…
You both know and feel that slavery has rendered labor disgraceful among you; and where this is the case, industry is necessarily discouraged.
If we turn to the new States, we find that slavery and freedom have the same influence on population as in the old.