Chapter 53—The North and the South
January 4, 1862, I was shown some things in regard to our nation.
My attention was called to the Southern rebellion. The South had
prepared themselves for a fierce conflict, while the North were asleep
as to their true feelings. Before President Lincoln’s administration
commenced, great advantage was taken by the South. The former
administration planned and managed for the South to rob the North of
their implements of war. They had two objects for so doing: 1. They
were contemplating a determined rebellion, and must prepare for it; 2.
When they should rebel, the North would be wholly unprepared. They
would thus gain time, and by their violent threats and ruthless course
they thought they could so intimidate the North that they would be
obliged to yield to them and let them have everything their own way.
The North did not understand the bitter, dreadful hatred of the
South toward them, and were unprepared for their deep-laid plots. The
North had boasted of their strength and ridiculed the idea of the South
leaving the Union. They considered it like the threats of a willful,
stubborn child, and thought that the South would soon come to their
senses, and, becoming sick of leaving the Union, would with humble
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apologies return to their allegiance. The North have had no just idea of
the strength of the accursed system of slavery. It is this, and this alone,
which lies at the foundation of the war. The South have been more and
more exacting. They consider it perfectly right to engage in human
traffic, to deal in slaves and the souls of men. They are annoyed and
become perfectly exasperated if they cannot claim all the territory they
desire. They would tear down the boundaries and bring their slaves to
any spot they please, and curse the soil with slave labor. The language
of the South has been imperious, and the North have not taken suitable
measures to silence it.
The rebellion was handled so carefully, so slowly, that many who
at first started with horror at the thought of rebellion were influenced
by rebels to look upon it as right and just, and thousands joined the
Southern Confederacy who would not had prompt and thorough mea-
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