Published by Evans & Cogswell, this little booklet was ordered published by the Edisto Island Vigilant Association on October 29, 1860. It is an address by the President of that association the Hon. John Townsend. This little booklet, which on the cover says “Read and send to your neighbor,” is the type of propaganda that fueled the emotions in the people of Charleston to secede from the Union. Throughout the 39 pages, Townsend refers to the “Black Republican rule” and that “upon the election of Mr. Lincoln they will take complete possession of the Government; and they will carry out those schemes of hostility against our property and domestic peace.” “Will the South remain a passive victim… whilst the butcher is preparing the knife for its destruction?” The booklet continues giving a fascinating case for succession. Perhaps the most interesting part of this booklet are the sections on the “Folly of abolishing slavery.”
“What would your condition be with such laborers, if, in mid-valley of your summer work, when the crop, and the grass too, were in vigorous growth, your hired, freed-negro-gang (your “equals” and “fellow-citizens,” by the “grace” of law and the Abolitionists) should throw their hoes upon their shoulders, and say to you they would work no longer, except you trebled or quadrupled their wages?”
“It means, again, the turning loose upon society, without the salutary restraints to which they are now accustom more than 4 million of a very poor and ignorant population, to ramble in idolness over the country until their wants should drive most of them, first to petty thefts, and afterwards to the bolder crimes of robbery and murder.”
“But the abolition of slavery means, further, that the negro is not only to be made free, but equal also to his former master, in political and civil rights; and, as far as it can be done, in social privileges. The planter and his family are not only to be reduced to poverty and want, by the robbery of his property, but to complete the refinement of the indignity, they are to be degraded to the level of an inferior race, be jostled by them in their paths, and intruded upon, and insulted over by rude and vulgar upstarts. Who can describe the loathsomeness of such an intercourse…”
As you can see, there is quite amazing content! The booklet concludes with the Constitution of the 1860 Association and its five points… this Association and booklets key factors lead to the Secession Convention in December 1860. This little booklet (5 ½ by 8 ¼ inches) apparently had some kind of binding or was disbound from a group of other pamphlets. Anyway, it is remarkable that both the front and back of this booklet being just paper have survived in the fine condition that they have! There are minor tears and stains, but the booklet makes a fine display and the content speaks for itself.
#B12 – Price $695
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Back Cover:
