Re: Background Material: A call for Help from US Easterners

On 13 Dec 2003 at 9:33, warbeads@juno.com wrote:

> As to the Confederacy thing - I know that my co-worker (from
> Louisiana) tells me that Louisiana voted to stay in the Union until
> Lincoln levied troop quotas to go fight their 'relations' in the
> seceded states.  Then Louisiana reconvened and seceded.  

Sorry, but your co-worker has it wrong. Lincoln didn't levie troops 
to fight against the south until April 15, 1861, the day after the 
firing on Fort Sumter. Louisiana voted to secede on January 26, 1861. 

In April, 1860, twelve delegates from Louisiana were sent to the 
Democratic convention in Charleston. They left the convention 
(seceded from it) along with delegates from Texas, Mississippi, 
Arkansas, Florida, and South Carolina over compromise policies in the 
Democratic party to keep the country together. As a result of the 
split within the party, the delegates who stayed in Charleston voted 
for Stephen Douglas to run for the presidency. The splinter group met 
in Baltimore and chose John Breckinridge (Vice President, and later 
Confederate General) as their nominee for the presidency. A new, 
conservative party, the National Constitutional Union, formed 
choosing John Bell to run for president. This party was less 
secessionist and urged caution. In the presidential election of 1860 
22,861 Louisianians voted for Breckinridge, 20,204 for Bell, 7,625 
for Douglas. Lincoln wasn't on the ballot. Louisiana voted 
secessionist in the presidential election, but it wasn't a majority. 
Many in New Orleans and surrounding parishes voted for compromise. 
The vote for Breckinridge was particularly strong outside of the 
city, in the areas where there were a lot of plantations.

However, Governor Moore, who was sworn in earlier that year, was 
clearly secessionist from the get-go. When it came time for Louisiana 
to vote for secession, the vote wasn't even close: 80 secssionist 
delegates were chosen, 44 co-operationists, and six "doubtfuls". 
Louisiana voted overwhelmingly to secede from the Union.

So, your co-worker is in error. Louisiana was not as secessionist as 
some states, but clearly far more secessionist than Virginia and the 
border states. And the reason Louisiana left the Union wasn't to help 
out her "relations", it was clearly (based on speeches and letters 
made by Governor Moore and others) over the question of "African 
slavery".

-- 

Allan Goodall		     agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

"You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely."
   - Ogden Nash