THE SOUTH: HER PERIL, AND HER DUTY. A DISCOURSE, DELIVERED IN THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW ORLEANS, ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1860.[wrapper title].

A scarce pro-slavery sermon given and published in the immediate wake of President Lincoln's 1860 election. The impending crisis and the Civil War gave Reverend Palmer a career as a prolific Fire-Eater. Though of New England stock and, for a time, a student at Amherst, he spent most of his life in the South and is described by the DAB as an "ardent defender of slavery [and] secession." In 1863, Palmer urged Louisianans to renounce their allegiance to the Union. In the present work, Palmer gives a post-mortem on "the heated canvass which has just been brought to so disastrous a close." The South's "providencial [sic] trust.is to conserve and to perpetuate the institution of domestic slavery as now existing." According to Palmer, white southerners are "the constituted guardians of the slaves themselves." The South must reject the "despotism" of the "unprincipled democracy" of the North which resulted in Lincoln's election. This was the peril; the South's duty was, according to Palmer, to secede from the Union. Palmer's sermon was published later in 1860 in Georgia as a THANKSGIVING SERMON. Jumonville notes just two copies, though OCLC reveals a healthy amount of institutional records. The work is scarce in the trade. JUMONVILLE 2984. THOMPSON 1170. SABIN 58346. DAB XIV, pp.175-76. 16pp. Original printed wrappers. Soft vertical crease throughout. Top margin of front wrapper largely torn away, wrappers soiled, a few small notations on front wrapper. Light stain in upper margin of first few leaves, light foxing. Still, a good plus copy.