What’s more, slavery assured that the white male populace would be free to fight without disrupting the economy. “At any time, the South can raise, equip, and maintain in the field, a larger army than any Power of the earth can send against her, and an army of soldiers—men brought up on horseback, with guns in their hands.” But the most potent weapon, he proclaimed, was the South’s control of cotton. “Without firing a gun, without drawing a sword, when they make war on us we can bring the whole world to our feet.” The South could simply stop producing this vital crop, he warned. “What would
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