LETTER FROM THE HON. WILLIAM C. RIVES TO A FRIEND, ON THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS OF THE DAY.
Richmond: Whig Book and Job Office, 1860. 16pp, stapled. Tanned. Good+
Writing in January 1860, after Harper's Ferry, Rives -- a National Whig for many years -- warns: "Let us not, upon the sudden appearance of a squall, or because one or two of the crew have mutinied, desert our good ship, the Constitution, abandon our comrades, and, in a panic betake ourselves to the crazy raft of secession..." Rives deplores some of the Northern reaction to Harper's Ferry, "in which, if the crime was not openly approved, the criminal was applauded and sympathized with...proclaiming the impunity of the offender."
Rives would heed the responsible northern friends of Union, who denounced John Brown. In the event of disunion, he predicts that the Border States will "have a peculiar and special interest in preserving" their ties to the Union; and that "the question of slavery has not the power to override all other considerations."
FIRST EDITION. Haynes 15752. Sabin 71664. Item #28491
Price: $150.00