SPEECH OF T. N. CRUMPLER, OF ASHE, ON FEDERAL RELATIONS, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, JAN. 10, 1861

Raleigh: Printed at the Office of the Raleigh Register, 1861. [2], 16, [2 blanks] pp. Stitched, lightly toned, Very Good plus.

Crumpler delivered this scarce speech at a time of strong Union sentiment in Ashe County, which in February would reject secession by an overwhelming margin. But when President Lincoln called for troops after the fall of Fort Sumter, the tide turned in this western North Carolina district. Crumpler enlisted as a Confederate Cavalry officer in July 1861 and died in 1862 from wounds suffered at Willis's Church, Virginia.
In this speech, however, he charges "that the dangers which now menace the Government are the result of a deliberate plot to destroy the Union," engineered by the Southern Rights Democrats, i.e., those "disunionists" who met "at Charleston, in the National Convention held there last spring." The Abolitionists, "a leprous spot upon our body politic," too bear a major share of responsibility: "With hearts full of treason to the spirit of the Constitution, they have, for years, been digging at the foundation of our Government." He passionately urges preservation of the Union, with compacts assuring protection to the South.
FIRST EDITION. Thornton [Off'l Pubs.] 1705. Not in LCP, Bartlett, Nevins. As of December 2022 OCLC records facsimiles only.