In a sense, writing by candlelight on the Cumberland, Olmsted encapsulated the impasse that would lead to secession and civil war. He realized that he’d underestimated the extremist resolve of the South’s leading men, and that they in turn misjudged the motives and determination of Northerners like himself. Nashville effectively extinguished Olmsted’s faith that middle ground could be found, or that Southerners had the “justice” and “good sense” to recognize the evils of slavery and gradually work toward ending them. “They do not seem to have a fundamental sense of right,” he wrote.
Many still don’t
