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How New York tried to secede from the Union
Secessionist overtures from New York City to the Confederate states, January 29, 1861
Geographically, New York City was decidedly a northern city. But, many of its citizens held deep sympathies for the Confederacy – or at least a strong ambivalence to ending slavery.
The city’s loyalty to the Union was so torn that New York Mayor Fernando Wood proposed seceding from the U.S. along with the Southern states.
Wood had no desire to see slavery in New York City – but he believed secession would be a power play for the city and believed New York was strong enough to operate on its own, as an independent island, apart from the United States.
Wood, a pro-South Democrat, wrote: ‘As a free city, New York would have the whole and united support of the southern states as well as the other states to whose interests and rights under the Constitution she has always been true.’
Bankers and industrialists relied on inexpensive southern cotton to stock the textile mills and agricultural exports to keep shipping traffic coming into New York Harbor.
Additionally, the throngs of new immigrants in the city had no desire to see the slaves freed, Mr Holzer writes.
Many of the new transplants from Europe were unabashedly racist against the blacks. They also feared that freeing millions slaves would flood the labor market with new workers willing to work for even less money than the new immigrants – thus driving down wages and making jobs harder to come by.
On January 7, 1861, he sent out a message to the six southern states that had declared their intendance. The official proclamation announced the appointment of three commissioners to represent New York City, independent of the federal government.
His message to the southern states: ‘Preserve peace, secure the rights of the South.’
A month later, Lincoln made his only trip to New York as sitting president. He was not warmly received, but he made himself clear to Wood: ‘There is nothing that can ever bring me to the destruction of the Union.’
He also reminded Wood that New York owed its prosperity not to the South, but to the Union as a whole. By the time war broke out, Wood begrudgingly backed the federal government.
Read more: The Civil War in 50 Objects: New book reveals little-known stories about war | Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Secessionist overtures from New York City to the Confederate states, January 29, 1861
Geographically, New York City was decidedly a northern city. But, many of its citizens held deep sympathies for the Confederacy – or at least a strong ambivalence to ending slavery.
The city’s loyalty to the Union was so torn that New York Mayor Fernando Wood proposed seceding from the U.S. along with the Southern states.
Wood had no desire to see slavery in New York City – but he believed secession would be a power play for the city and believed New York was strong enough to operate on its own, as an independent island, apart from the United States.
Wood, a pro-South Democrat, wrote: ‘As a free city, New York would have the whole and united support of the southern states as well as the other states to whose interests and rights under the Constitution she has always been true.’
Bankers and industrialists relied on inexpensive southern cotton to stock the textile mills and agricultural exports to keep shipping traffic coming into New York Harbor.
Additionally, the throngs of new immigrants in the city had no desire to see the slaves freed, Mr Holzer writes.
Many of the new transplants from Europe were unabashedly racist against the blacks. They also feared that freeing millions slaves would flood the labor market with new workers willing to work for even less money than the new immigrants – thus driving down wages and making jobs harder to come by.
On January 7, 1861, he sent out a message to the six southern states that had declared their intendance. The official proclamation announced the appointment of three commissioners to represent New York City, independent of the federal government.
His message to the southern states: ‘Preserve peace, secure the rights of the South.’
A month later, Lincoln made his only trip to New York as sitting president. He was not warmly received, but he made himself clear to Wood: ‘There is nothing that can ever bring me to the destruction of the Union.’
He also reminded Wood that New York owed its prosperity not to the South, but to the Union as a whole. By the time war broke out, Wood begrudgingly backed the federal government.
Read more: The Civil War in 50 Objects: New book reveals little-known stories about war | Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook