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  THE ALTERNATIVE:

  A SEPARATE NATIONALITY,
  OR THE
  Africanization of the South.


  By WM. H. HOLCOMBE, M. D.


  NEW ORLEANS:
  PRINTED AT THE DELTA MAMMOTH JOB OFFICE,
  1860.




THE ALTERNATIVE:

A Separate Nationality, or the Africanization of the South.


A sectional party, inimical to our institutions, and odious to our
people, is about taking possession of the Federal Government. The seed
sown by the early Abolitionists has yielded a luxurious harvest. When
Lincoln is in place, Garrison will be in power. The Constitution, either
openly violated or emasculated of its true meaning and spirit by the
subtleties of New England logic, is powerless for protection. We are no
longer partners to a federal compact, but the victims of a consolidated
despotism. Opposition to slavery, to its existence, its extension and
its perpetuation, is the sole cohesive element of the triumphant
faction. It did not receive the countenance of a single vote in any one
of the ten great cotton States of the South! The question is at length
plainly presented: submission or secession. The only alternative left us
is this: _a separate nationality or the Africanization of the South_.

He has not analyzed this subject aright nor probed it to the bottom, who
supposes that the real quarrel between the North and the South is about
the Territories, or the decision of the Supreme Court, or even the
Constitution itself; and that, consequently, the issues may be stayed
and the dangers arrested by the drawing of new lines and the signing of
new compacts. The division is broader and deeper and more incurable than
this. The antagonism is fundamental and ineradicable. The true secret of
it lies in the total reversion of public opinion which has occured in
both sections of the country in the last quarter of a century on the
subject of slavery.

It has not been more than twenty-five years since Garrison was dragged
through the streets of Boston with a rope around his neck, for uttering
Abolition sentiments; and not thirty years since, the abolition of
slavery was seriously debated in the Legislature of Virginia. Now, on
the contrary, the radical opinions of Sumner, Emerson and Parker, and
the assassination schemes of John Brown, are applauded in Fanueil Hall,
and the whole Southern mind with an unparalelled unanimity, regards the
institution of slavery as righteous and just, ordained of God, and to be
perpetuated by man. We do not propose to analyze the causes of this
remarkable revolution, which will constitute one of the strangest
chapters of history. The fact is unquestionable. To understand
rationally the events which are transpiring, and to forsee their
inevitable issue, it is necessary to examine this element of discord
between the Northern and Southern people, to investigate its true nature
and extent, and weigh carefully the prospect of its cure.

The Northern mind has become thoroughly anti-slavery in sentiment. Even
those who contend for