Slavery a Costly Price for Southerners (URL)
In this letter Cleburne establishes the South's need for a new fighting source. The North has the South beat in population easily and raising an army with new trained soldiers is no issue for them. The Confederates, however, have a lack of men to fight and still hold down the homestead. A majority of the South's population is slaves and the slaves are not fighting. The slaves are making the South vulnerable. Slaves are easy spies for the North, always able to give information here and there in order to help out their masters' enemies. Additionally the North is getting European support for the war because foreign nations, especially Britain who just abolished slavery, see slavery an abomination and feel by supporting the south they are helping further slavery. The South feels as if they enlist slaves and guarantee those who fight freedom than they are ultimately surrendering right there by emancipating their slaves, which is the main reason they're fighting. The north is willingly training and enlisting slaves that wish to fight furthering their host of soldiers. Without support from slaves and European nations the South immediately doomed their chances of victory by continuing their preciously treacherous institution of slavery.