Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2007 - (Page 62)

LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM Signing the Ordinance of Secession of Louisiana, January 26, 1861, an oil on canvas painting by Enoch Wood Perry Jr. (1831-1915). Carolina took the lead in threatening secession. Louisianians listened to the debates and, primarily based on local economic activities, coalesced into four major camps of political thought. The first group were the Unionists. They wanted to remain in the United States no matter the circumstances. As the decade ended, the Unionists became a decidedly silent small minority. The New Orleans Daily Picayune best identified the remaining three groups on January 1, 1861, just a week before the secession convention convened. The first of the three large segments of politically active citizens were the radical Secessionists, known across the South as “fire-eaters.” Their cause was carried in the media by a rival paper, the New Orleans Daily Delta, a major competitor to the Picayune. The second large segment were the Cooperationists, described by the Daily Picayune as those who were inclined toward secession, but were only willing to leave the Union if Southern rights could not be addressed and if the other OF ALL THE SOUTHERN STATES, LOUISIANA HAD THE MOST TO LOSE BY LEAVING THE UNITED STATES. GEOGRAPHY AND ECONOMIC INTERESTS CLOSELY TIED IT TO THE UPPER MIDWEST, NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND. Southern states agreed. They were willing to create an independent nation from the State of Louisiana and would consider affiliating with a loose grouping of like-minded states. The third segment were the Conditional Unionists, smaller than either of the other secession-minded groups. They were similar to the Cooperationists but believed that secession should be executed in accordance with all of the other slaveholding states. In other words, they did not want to create an independent nation but wished to im- rhetoric on both ends of the political spectrum increased and major national political parties either split over the slavery issue or self-destructed. The Democrat Party reformed itself into Northern and Southern wings, the Whigs collapsed and two new political parties were created from the ashes and from other groups with similar goals. The new parties were the Republicans, who were associated with the abolitionists, and the Constitutional Union Party, which advocated compromise and the continuance of slavery. mediately join a new nation. The Cooperationists and the Conditional Unionists were natural allies. They both favored earnest negotiations before a severance from the United States. Together, these latter groups were larger than the Secessionists. They were not as well organized and the media was generally on the side of the Secessionists, as were the ministers in the cotton-producing areas. Events outside the state held sway over internal politics as the level of When Abraham Lincoln won the Republican Party nomination, South Carolina vowed to leave the Union. The political race for the presidency in 1860 was vitriolic and portrayed the fractured nature of the American political landscape. In addition to Lincoln’s candidacy, John Bell led the Constitutional Union party, John C. Breckinridge was the current Vice President of the United States and the Southern Democrat nominee, and Stephen A. Douglas 62 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Fall 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2007

Contents Friends & Letters Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Big Charity: A History of New Orleans’ Public Hospital Historic New Orleans Collection Making Groceries: A History of New Orleans Markets New Orleans’ Faubourg Tremé: Rooted in Tradition Jazz Notes Louisiana Association of Museums Chinatown New Orleans Louisiana Foodways A Question of Secession Louisiana Architecture Louisiana State Museum The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish Terra Incognita Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2007

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