Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/358

320 rebuked by such men as Edward Everett, who pronounced the reliance on butchery of Southerners by negroes as monstrous. Even this abated discussion of any supposed rising of the Southern slaves shows the inflamed condition of public sentiment, while it also disclosed the general ignorance of the relations existing between master and slave in the South. The waiting of the negroes for war to end, while remaining faithful to the close, surprised the North and evoked the generous spirit of the South.

It must be borne in mind that there was no universal hostility existing between the people at large of the two sections. The angry fires burned at first in the hearts of the few, who in sheer partisanship or in some degree of fanaticism, regarded the issues North and South as an irrepressible conflict indeed.

But there were many strong ties binding the citizenry of the two sections in friendly unity. Business relations may be mentioned first as extending into every Southern town whose merchants traded in the Northern cities. Social ties, formed among families, who by the thousands had mingled in the summer months especially. There were also strong political affinities of Southern and Northern politicians. College attachments began in many Northern colleges where the Southern youths were sent to be educated. Army and navy comradeship existed among the officers. Intermarriages were numerous. Northern born men who had come South left behind them great numbers of kindred.

Turning from consideration of the public apprehensions existing in the North, and surveying the South, we discover equal evidences of alarm. The South saw that it was a loser whether it remained in the Union or separated from it. An uneasy feeling pervaded the masses and extended among the commercial men in Southern towns. Capital became alarmed. All classes of business felt the shock of the apprehension of evil. Trade