MAY 8, 1861:
With Virginia still an
independent “republic”, and with the Confederacy less than a month old and
still forming, the free press in the South let slip an indicator of domestic
instability when the fire-breathing chief newspaper of Virginia’s capital
announced:
“The Richmond Examiner of to-day demands a
Dictator; it says: “No power in executive hands can be too great, no discretion
too absolute, at such moments as these. We need a Dictator. Let lawyers talk when the world has time to
hear them. Now let the sword do its work. Usurpations of power by the chief, for the preservation of the people from robbers and murderers, will be reckoned as genius and patriotism by
all sensible men in the world now, and by every historian that will judge the deed hereafter.”
Although the
call for a Southern dictatorship went unheeded in 1861, this became a repeating
theme in the press as the war progressed and Southern fortunes declined.
Usually, Robert E. Lee was named as the preferred man for the job; Lee refused
to consider any such thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment