Lincoln's Christianity by Michael Burkhimer

[RJNorton]

(01-02-2016 07:20 AM)My Name Is Kate Wrote:  If he was going to take such a stance, he should have been as absolutely certain as possible how the Southerners would react to it, and he should have had some clue that they wouldn't just roll over and give up.

Hi Kate. I think Alexander Stephens, who would later become Vice-President of the Confederate States, tried to warn Lincoln of this in a letter dated December 30, 1860. Among other things Stephens wrote, "The leading object seems to be simply, and wantonly, if, you please, to put the institutions of nearly half the States under the ban of public opinion and national condemnation. This, upon general principles, is quite enough of itself to arouse a spirit not only of general indignation, but of revolt on the part of the proscribed...I entreat you be not deceived as to the nature and extent of the danger."