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An Alabamian Asserts His Rights In 1861

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Southern home front Autograph Letter Signed, "E.B. Clapp" 4p. octavo, Huntsville, Alabama, April 19, 1861, and reads in part: "...Looking at the unhappy state of our country at this time, it does not seem improbable that I may soon see some of my former friends & perhaps schoolmates in connection with many others trying to whip us back into the 'Union.' I'm always happy to see my friends, made dear to me by early associations; but if they come as part and parcel of Lincoln's damned Abolition Army, I will be one of the first to extend to them an enthusiastic but bloody reception & hospitalbe graves. Do you all realize what you are doing? Do you think you can subdue the south & enforce laws, or the obedience thereof to a country to which they own, and justly too, that they owe no allegiance? No sir, tis a terrible mistake, not a man, woman, or child, in the whole south, but will fight to the death, & then when the last one lies cold in the arms of the gin monster, our blood will cry from the ground in thunder tones, we will not submit. Let us reason together, admit that Slavery is a sin and an evil (which I do not believe) are you answerable for it; is it any of your business? You do not have to answer for my sins. I do not for yours. If it is a sin we will have it to answer for at the Bar of God, not you. Does it seem more like a Christian duty to deluge this once happy country in blood, than to let us alone, to enjoy our rights peacebly, independently & without molesting any one? If so we are ready. By the Blood of our fathers, our brothers, our own hearts, our wives & children, our homes & property, & by the God above us, we will be free & independent. You may say that I talk like a Southern man, with no northern blood in my veins. For the last month or so, I do feel that way, & if this unholy war is pushed to any extent by the cohorts of Abolitiondom, I never wish again to set my foot on northern soil, and if I ever see even my best friend, whether in the field or any where else, in the dress of a soldier, polluting our soil with his impious foot, I'll shoot him like a dog, feel no compunctions of conscience, & be ready to meet my maker to answer for it..." Much more interesting content. Minor fold separations, else VG.

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