Apr 18, 2026 By Richard Robbins 4 min read

In April 1861, following the firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S.C., and the start of the American Civil War, Edward G. Roddy, editor of the Uniontown Genius of Liberty newspaper, wrote, “Amidst the civilizations of the 19th century, we are on the very brink of ruin, despotism, and destruction.”

That Sunday, the Rev. R.M. Wallace, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Brownsville, thundered from the pulpit, “It is the duty of all citizens to aid the Constitutional authorities in maintaining the supremacy of the Constitution and the laws.”

“The national Government,” he exclaimed, “is being assailed and the Capitol menaced by Traitors.”

Roddy was a Democrat, and a partisan one to boot. To be a Democrat in 1861 carried radically different connotations than it does today.

To be a Southern Democrat meant an out and out defense of human slavery. To be a Northern Democrat in the mold of Roddy meant an active toleration of slavery. In the weeks before the start of hostilities, Roddy oversaw publication of an article which cast slavery as a positive good with standing in the Bible.

The newspaper essayist, writing as the “the Virginian,” quoted St. Paul, “Exhort servants to be obedient to their masters, and please them well in all things.” And: “Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their masters as worthy of all honor.”

Projecting ahead a few months, the Virginian concluded, “It is the collision of flint and steel that produces light.”

“…. Then farewell, a long farewell, to our greatness. The problem will have been settled that man is not capable of self-government.”

Many months and many deaths later, President Lincoln, on the verge of signing the Emancipation Proclamation (while fighting to preserve democracy), mused privately that the Almighty had sided with the enslaved, by way of the Union victory at Antietam Creek, Maryland.

The president noted on Inauguration Day 1865, “Both [sides] read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other…. The Almighty had his own purposes.”

The existence of slavery in a country that proclaimed equal rights and opportunity stained both the North and South, Lincoln said. The people of the North carried just as much responsibility for its existence as their Southern brethren. Neither side was free of guilt.

Not a few individuals in the regions around Uniontown considered editor Roddy a traitor to the United States.

On April 16, three days after the American flag was hauled down over Ft. Sumter, Roddy was roundly denounced, his life threatened. A failure on his part to unfurl the Stars and Stripes atop the Genius of Liberty building would result in the newspaper – the means of his livelihood – being “gutted.”

Looking back on the spring of 1861, Roddy admitted, “We were prepared for the worst.”

The editor survived, slavery ended, the nation endured. It was a close call, however.

Lincoln died. Jim Crow was born.

Just as we live perpetually in the glow of 1776, we live always in the shadow and hope of 1861-1865.

As a new president in 1861, Lincoln fended off attempts to embroil the nation in a distracting foreign conflict. To the million in his own country who feared and hated him, Lincoln said, “We are not enemies, but friends.”

In matters of state, Lincoln hoped to be on God’s side.

In the spring of 2026, we have a president who posts a likeness of himself as Christ, threatens other nations with extinction, and expresses open disdain for the half of the country that voted against him.

His body buried deep beneath the prairie in his Illinois hometown, Lincoln’s great soul must be stirring and restless. Father Abraham cannot be resting easy.

Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.