Cobb’s
Letter to Georgia Unionists
The
dangers which so universally threatened a few months ago the peace and quiet of
the country, including the very existence of the Union, have
been avoided and turned aside.
A
Northern majority threatened to execute the passage of that odious measure, the
Wilmot Proviso.
In the
series of adjustment measures passed at the last session of Congress on the
various Branches of the slavery question is found the record of a fair, just
and honourable
settlement of this alarming
question.
It only
now needs to be considered final, and then final I will grant that the danger is
entirely over. But unfortunately this
settlement is not regarded in that light by a large portion of the people. At the North a clamor
has been raised for
the repeal of the
fugitive slave law by the abolitionists. In the South the spirit of opposition
is equally violent and determined. The open disunionists
of South Carolina and the Southern Rights party of Georgia consider the action
of the
government
as violative of their rights and honour.
I
offered my hand and my heart in the good cause of the Union.