Northern Editorials on Secession
Perkins, Howard Cecil, ed. Northern Editorials on Secession. New York: D. Appleton - Century Company, Inc., 1942.
1. This collection of editorials, encompassing two volumes, features writings produced by Northern newspapers from 1860 through 1861 pertaining in various ways to the issue of Southern secession. Northern Editorials on Secession contains four hundred ninety-five individual editorials from one hundred ninety-nine different newspapers. The great quantity of editorials and variety of newspapers in this source provides for the representation of many diverse opinions about the possibility, justifiability and potential consequences of secession.
2. The collection was compiled and published by 1942. All of the contents come from the years 1860 and 1861. Graduate students of Professor Ulrich B. Phillips began the work, and the Beveridge Memorial Fund Committee provided means for the continuation and expansion of the project by Howard Cecil Perkins. The impetus for this project came from a desire to complement Dwight L. Drummond's Southern Editorials on Secession, yet another project of the Beveridge Fund.
3. The work of various Northern editors appears throughout the two volumes.
4. The editorials are organized by thematic category. The categories are as follows:
I. The Campaign of 1860
II. The Prospect of Secession
III. Buchanan's Message to Congress
IV. Secession: Right or Revolution?
V. "The Enforcement of Laws"
VI. Conciliation and Compromise
VII. Measures for Peace
VIII. Peaceable Separation
IX. New Confederacies and a Free City
X. "The Everlasting Negro"
XI. The Morality of Slavery
XII. The "Chivalry"
XIII. The Mississippi
XIV. The Economics of Union
XV. Inaugurals South and North
XVI. The Emergence of a Policy
XVII. The Strategy of Sumter
XVIII. The Sequel to Sumter
XIX. Post-Sumter Pleas for Peace
XX. Objects of the War
XXI. The Border States
XXII. Western Virginia
XXIII. The American Experiment
XXIV. Foreign Relations
XXV. Personalities
XXVI. "Sensationism" and Propaganda
XXVII. Moral and Spiritual Values
Within each thematic category, the editorials are arranged chronologically. This all appears in the table of contents
5. The table of contents, as above explained, provides the primary finding aid, although a thorough index in the back of both volumes may also prove useful. Additionally, volume two features a "Newspaper Index" that lists every included newspaper by state.
6. The source is accessible through Bowdoin's Hawthorne-Longfellow Library. It is located on the second floor of the main library, call no. E440.5 P45. No strictures placed on access.
7. Broadly, this source may aid in answering questions concerning popular attitudes toward and ideas about secession in the North. The range of topics and perspectives are diverse, so more specific inquiries will be well suited to this source.
Southern Editorials on Secession
Dumond, Dwight L., ed. Southern Editorials on Secession. New York: The Century Co., 1931.
1. This one volume collection of Southern editorials about secession consists of one hundred eighty-three individual editorials from the years 1860 and 1861. The collection of writing represents a diverse array of attitudes toward secession.
2. Southern Editorials on Secession was completed in 1931, edited by Dwight L. Dumond. The collection aims to capture the "variety, conflict, and concurrence" of Southern reactions to the idea of secession.
3. This source features the work of various Southern newspaper editors.
4. The editorials are organized only by chronology.
5. A table of contents and index are the only finding aids.
6. The book can be found on the second floor of Bowdoin's Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, call no. E440.5 D89. No strictures placed on access.
7. This source will generally prove useful in inquiries about popular Southern attitudes toward the idea of secession. Because the included editorials offer various diverse perspectives, more specific questions will best suit this collection.