Baptists and the American Civil War: March 20, 1861

Samuel Boykin Samuel Boykin (photo), editor of Georgia Baptists’ Christian Index, expresses the growing Christian Nationalist sentiment among Baptists and other citizens of the South:

“We have declared allegiance, and which we look upon as our own of RIGHT – a heritage from the God of nations to a people that knows its rights and liberties, and knowing, dares to maintain them.”

Feelings against the North are now so deep among many southerners that even inclement weather is blamed on northerners. From the Savannah News:

“Early risers were surprised yesterday morning to find the ground covered with snow, for the first time in several years. The telegraph announced the snow storm in Macon and Augusta early in the evening, but it did not reach us until near morning. It brought with it a sharp, biting atmosphere, and, though the snow had disappeared by ten o’clock, there was, during the day, a decided Northern twang in the air that reminded us of that ungenial region from which so much ill wind has blown of late.”

Sources: “Misled or Misleading,’ Christian Index, March 20, 1861; “A Northern Invasion,” Savannah News, March 20, 1861 (link)