Incident at an Antique Store

[L Verge]

Source: Abraham Lincoln: A Press Portrait, Herbert Mitgang, editor, UGA Press, 1989, pp.256-257; excerpt from original editorial in Bangor, Maine, newspaper and reprinted in the New York Evening Day-Book of 18 April 1861:

DEMOCRATS OF MAINE! The loyal sons of the South have gathered around Charleston as your fathers of old gathered about Boston, in defense of the same sacred principles of liberty -- principles which you have ever upheld and defended with your vote, your voice, and your strong right arm. Your sympathies are with the defenders of the truth and the right. Those who have inaugurated this unholy and unjustifiable war are no friends of yours -- no friends of Democratic Liberty. Will you aid them in their work of subjugation and tyranny?

When the Government at Washington calls for volunteers or recruits to carry on their work of subjugation and tyranny under the specious phrases of "enforcing the laws," "retaking and protecting the public property," and "collecting the revenue," let every Democrat fold his arms and bid the minions of Tory despotism [to] do a Tory despot's work. Say to them fearlessly and boldly in the language of England's great Lord, the Earl of Chatham, whose bold words in behalf of the struggling Colonies of America in the dark hours of the revolution, have enshrined his name in the heart of every friend of freedom, and immortalized his fame wherever the name of liberty is known -- say in his thrilling language: "If I were a Southerner, as I am a Northerner, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I would never lay down my arms - never, never, NEVER!"

While abolitionists drew most of their support from New England, this editorial shows the politics involved (at least early in the war) with Democrats preaching against the actions of their own government. BTW: After this editorial appeared, a pro-Lincoln mob burned the news offices and printing presses of the paper.

Seldom cited political infighting within the North during the war...