Connecticut Manufacturers Seek Support For the Union Just Prior To Civil War

Single page pro-Union circular, published a little more than a year before the first shots were first at Fort Sumter, initiating the Civil War, on April 12, 1861.  This pro-Union circular was reported in the December 31 issue of the Times-Picayune of New Orleans, the December 31 issue of the Cincinnati Daily Press in 1859 and in a January 1860 issue of the Brooklyn Evening Star.  This particular copy was sent through the mail to Samuel Arnold of Haddam, CT. Arnold (1806 -1896) had just retired from Congress.  Although he was a Democrat, Arnold was pro-Union.

Entitled “Connecticut Manufacturers,” the circular reads, in small part, “...The time has come, when, as a class, you are called upon to vindicate the National Honor. In us, with much truth is it charged, lies the control of the conservative element of the North, which alone is to break down the growing design of dissolution, and in its place recover what is fast being lost, -- the love of our country, which must glow warm in the hearts of the people, or hatred and the spirit of faction and sectionalism will create an inquietude which will make common the extraordinary scenes which have been and are now passing upon the line of our Southern sister States.

“...Prejudice against the South is growing and now is the jaundice of the mind; and employers, as well as parents, who are possessed with a strong opinion of anything, are sure to instill it into the minds of those with whom they come in contact, and so render prejudice hereditary. Prejudice begets passion, and passion infallibly blinds our eyes and shuts our ears against everything that offers to contradict it. Yet blind as we are to this error in ourselves, how quick sighted are we to discover...

“Are we not much at fault, who, calling ourselves conservatives, stand by and see this growing disaffection, and try not, by word or deed, to disarm the foes of our country?  The present state of our country demands that every man shall do his duty, and that every Northern Manufacturer particularly, should wield his influence for the support of our glorious Union...

“It is for our interest to meet in General Convention...settle a line of policy which shall place each and every Manufacturer before the eyes of the world, as he is: a promoter of Union or Disunion...If there be others who think as I do, let them speak out, and let there be a Connecticut Manufacturers’ Convention: or, if possible, a New England Convention...”

Light toning. Mailing folds. Very nice integral address leaf. Nice Derby, CT, postmark, and original Franklin stamp.

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