It is not safe . . . to trust $800 million worth of negroes in the hands of a power which says that we do not own the property . . . So we must get out . . .
— The Daily Constitutionalist, Augusta, Ga., Dec. 1, 1860

[Northerners] have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery . . . We, therefore, . . . have solemnly declared that the Union heretofore existing between this State and other States of North America dissolved.
— from Declaration of the Causes of Secession

As long as slavery is looked upon by the North with abhorrence . . . there can be no satisfactory political union between the two sections.
— New Orleans Bee, Dec. 14, 1860

Our new government is founded upon . . . the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition.
— Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, March 21, 1861