I sent you a paper on Tuesday
giving a report of the Bell & Everett
breaking up a John Brown
meeting in which latter Mr. Sanborn
took part.
So we are to get rid of that
comtemptible little pepperpot or
State called Carolina. She
never has behaved well in the the
Union(from '76 to this day) and once
out of it she will be made to behave.

It is to be hoped that all the
Slave States will conclude to go with
her. The attempt to "Fraternise," as they
call it, States based on the firmest
despotism of petty oligarchies with States
based on the earnest democracy, or nearly So,
has become hopeless, & the Sooner it is
abandoned the better. All free States can
thrive. All slave states must come to
revolution sooner or later. Progress in
civilization this 19th century is incompatible

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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There is currently no available "Beginner" label. The following is the default level label: In his letter, Stephen Higginson exhibited the range of Northern views on the Civil War in his reaction to South Carolina seceding from the Union. He believed that slavery held back the United States' progress in the nineteenth century. By calling southerners "barbarians," Higginson reflected a common northern belief that members of a slave society were uneducated, economically stagnant, and out of harmony with nineteenth century morals. While many Northerners wanted to fight to preserve the Union, Higginson said the United States would be better off without the burden of slavery and did not think his country should fight to keep slave states within its realm. This letter was penned to his seventeen year-old son, Francis J. Higginson, who would later participate in the blockade of South Carolina and continue on as a Rear Admiral of the United States Navy, commanding America's first true battleship, the "Massachusetts."

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