Georgia
[Copied by Justin Sanders from the Official Records, Ser IV, vol 1, pp. 81-85.]
The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the
Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates
and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten
years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our
non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African
slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our
domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their
express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and by
the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us
of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic. This hostile
policy of our confederates has been pursued with every circumstance of
aggravation which could arouse the passions and excite the hatred of our
people, and has placed the two sections of the Union for many years past in
the condition of virtual civil war. Our people, still attached to the Union from
habit and national traditions, and averse to change, hoped that time, reason,
and argument would bring, if not redress, at least exemption from further
insults, injuries, and dangers. Recent events have fully dissipated all such
hopes and demonstrated the necessity of separation. Our Northern
confederates, after a full and calm hearing of all the facts, after a fair warning
of our purpose not to submit to the rule of the authors of all these wrongs and
injuries, have by a large majority committed the Government of the United
States into their hands. The people of Georgia, after an equally full and fair
and deliberate hearing of the case, have declared with equal firmness that
they shall not rule over them. A brief history of the rise, progress, and policy
of anti-slavery and the political organization into whose hands the
administration of the Federal Government has been committed will fully justify
the pronounced verdict of the people of Georgia. The party of Lincoln, called
the Republican party, under its present name and organization, is of recent
origin. It is admitted to be an anti-slavery party. While it attracts to itself by its
creed the scattered advocates of exploded political heresies, of condemned
theories in political economy, the advocates of commercial restrictions, of
protection, of special privileges, of waste and corruption in the administration
of Government, anti-slavery is its mission and its purpose. By anti-slavery it is
made a power in the state. The question of slavery was the great difficulty in
the way of the formation of the Constitution. While the subordination and the
political and social inequality of the African race was fully conceded by all, it
was plainly apparent that slavery would soon disappear from what are now the
non-slave-holding States of the original thirteen. The opposition to slavery
was then, as now, general in those States and the Constitution was made with
direct reference to that fact. But a distinct abolition party was not formed in
the United States for more than half a century after the Government went into
operation. The main reason was that the North, even if united, could not
control both branches of the Legislature during any portion of that time.
Therefore such an organization must have resulted either in utter failure or in
the total overthrow of the Government. The material prosperity of the North
was greatly dependent on the Federal Government; that of the the South not
at all. In the first years of the Republic the navigating, commercial, and
manufacturing interests of the North began to seek profit and aggrandizement
at the expense of the agricultural interests. Even the owners of fishing smacks
sought and obtained bounties for pursuing their own business (which yet
continue), and $500,000 is now paid them annually out of the Treasury. The
navigating interests begged for protection against foreign shipbuilders and
against competition in the coasting trade. Congress granted both requests,
and by prohibitory acts gave an absolute monopoly of this business to each of
their interests, which they enjoy without diminution to this day. Not content with
these great and unjust advantages, they have sought to throw the legitimate
burden of their business as much as possible upon the public; they have
succeeded in throwing the cost of light-houses, buoys, and the maintenance
of their seamen upon the Treasury, and the Government now pays above
$2,000,000 annually for the support of these objects. Theses interests, in
connection with the commercial and manufacturing classes, have also
succeeded, by means of subventions to mail steamers and the reduction in
postage, in relieving their business from the payment of about $7,000,000
annually, throwing it upon the public Treasury under the name of postal
deficiency. The manufacturing interests entered into the same struggle early,
and has clamored steadily for Government bounties and special favors. This
interest was confined mainly to the Eastern and Middle non-slave-holding
States. Wielding these great States it held great power and influence, and its
demands were in full proportion to its power. The manufacturers and miners
wisely based their demands upon special facts and reasons rather than upon
general principles, and thereby mollified much of the opposition of the
opposing interest. They pleaded in their favor the infancy of their business in
this country, the scarcity of labor and capital, the hostile legislation of other
countries toward them, the great necessity of their fabrics in the time of war,
and the necessity of high duties to pay the debt incurred in our war for
independence. These reasons prevailed, and they received for many years
enormous bounties by the general acquiescence of the whole country.
But when these reasons ceased they were no less clamorous for Government
protection, but their clamors were less heeded-- the country had put the
principle of protection upon trial and condemned it. After having enjoyed
protection to the extent of from 15 to 200 per cent. upon their entire business
for above thirty years, the act of 1846 was passed. It avoided sudden change,
but the principle was settled, and free trade, low duties, and economy in
public expenditures was the verdict of the American people. The South and
the Northwestern States sustained this policy. There was but small hope of its
reversal; upon the direct issue, none at all.
All these classes saw this and felt it and cast about for new allies. The
anti-slavery sentiment of the North offered the best chance for success. An
anti-slavery party must necessarily look to the North alone for support, but a
united North was now strong enough to control the Government in all of its
departments, and a sectional party was therefore determined upon. Time and
issues upon slavery were necessary to its completion and final triumph. The
feeling of anti-slavery, which it was well known was very general among the
people of the North, had been long dormant or passive; it needed only a
question to arouse it into aggressive activity. This question was before us. We
had acquired a large territory by successful war with Mexico; Congress had to
govern it; how, in relation to slavery, was the question then demanding
solution. This state of facts gave form and shape to the anti-slavery sentiment
throughout the North and the conflict began. Northern anti-slavery men of all
parties asserted the right to exclude slavery from the territory by
Congressional legislation and demanded the prompt and efficient exercise of
this power to that end. This insulting and unconstitutional demand was met
with great moderation and firmness by the South. We had shed our blood and
paid our money for its acquisition; we demanded a division of it on the line of
the Missouri restriction or an equal participation in the whole of it. These
propositions were refused, the agitation became general, and the public
danger was great. The case of the South was impregnable. The price of the
acquisition was the blood and treasure of both sections-- of all, and,
therefore, it belonged to all upon the principles of equity and justice.
The Constitution delegated no power to Congress to excluded either party
from its free enjoyment; therefore our right was good under the Constitution.
Our rights were further fortified by the practice of the Government from the
beginning. Slavery was forbidden in the country northwest of the Ohio River
by what is called the ordinance of 1787. That ordinance was adopted under
the old confederation and by the assent of Virginia, who owned and ceded the
country, and therefore this case must stand on its own special circumstances.
The Government of the United States claimed territory by virtue of the treaty
of 1783 with Great Britain, acquired territory by cession from Georgia and
North Carolina, by treaty from France, and by treaty from Spain. These
acquisitions largely exceeded the original limits of the Republic. In all of these
acquisitions the policy of the Government was uniform. It opened them to the
settlement of all the citizens of all the States of the Union. They emigrated
thither with their property of every kind (including slaves). All were equally
protected by public authority in their persons and property until the
inhabitants became sufficiently numerous and otherwise capable of bearing
the burdens and performing the duties of self-government, when they were
admitted into the Union upon equal terms with the other States, with whatever
republican constitution they might adopt for themselves.
Under this equally just and beneficent policy law and order, stability and
progress, peace and prosperity marked every step of the progress of these
new communities until they entered as great and prosperous commonwealths
into the sisterhood of American States. In 1820 the North endeavored to
overturn this wise and successful policy and demanded that the State of
Missouri should not be admitted into the Union unless she first prohibited
slavery within her limits by her constitution. After a bitter and protracted
struggle the North was defeated in her special object, but her policy and
position led to the adoption of a section in the law for the admission of
Missouri, prohibiting slavery in all that portion of the territory acquired from
France lying North of 36 [degrees] 30 [minutes] north latitude and outside of
Missouri. The venerable Madison at the time of its adoption declared it
unconstitutional. Mr. Jefferson condemned the restriction and foresaw its
consequences and predicted that it would result in the dissolution of the
Union. His prediction is now history. The North demanded the application of
the principle of prohibition of slavery to all of the territory acquired from
Mexico and all other parts of the public domain then and in all future time. It
was the announcement of her purpose to appropriate to herself all the public
domain then owned and thereafter to be acquired by the United States. The
claim itself was less arrogant and insulting than the reason with which she
supported it. That reason was her fixed purpose to limit, restrain, and finally
abolish slavery in the States where it exists. The South with great unanimity
declared her purpose to resist the principle of prohibition to the last extremity.
This particular question, in connection with a series of questions affecting the
same subject, was finally disposed of by the defeat of prohibitory legislation.
The Presidential election of 1852 resulted in the total overthrow of the
advocates of restriction and their party friends. Immediately after this result
the anti-slavery portion of the defeated party resolved to unite all the
elements in the North opposed to slavery an to stake their future political
fortunes upon their hostility to slavery everywhere. This is the party two whom
the people of the North have committed the Government. They raised their
standard in 1856 and were barely defeated. They entered the Presidential
contest again in 1860 and succeeded.
The prohibition of slavery in the Territories, hostility to it everywhere, the
equality of the black and white races, disregard of all constitutional
guarantees in its favor, were boldly proclaimed by its leaders and applauded
by its followers.
With these principles on their banners and these utterances on their lips the
majority of the people of the North demand that we shall receive them as our
rulers.
The prohibition of slavery in the Territories is the cardinal principle of this
organization.
For forty years this question has been considered and debated in the halls of
Congress, before the people, by the press, and before the tribunals of justice.
The majority of the people of the North in 1860 decided it in their own favor.
We refuse to submit to that judgment, and in vindication of our refusal we
offer the Constitution of our country and point to the total absence of any
express power to exclude us. We offer the practice of our Government for the
first thirty years of its existence in complete refutation of the position that any
such power is either necessary or proper to the execution of any other power
in relation to the Territories. We offer the judgment of a large minority of the
people of the North, amounting to more than one-third, who united with the
unanimous voice of the South against this usurpation; and, finally, we offer
the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest judicial
tribunal of our country, in our favor. This evidence ought to be conclusive that
we have never surrendered this right. The conduct of our adversaries
admonishes us that if we had surrendered it, it is time to resume it.
The faithless conduct of our adversaries is not confined to such acts as might
aggrandize themselves or their section of the Union. They are content if they
can only injure us. The Constitution declares that persons charged with
crimes in one State and fleeing to another shall be delivered up on the
demand of the executive authority of the State from which they may flee, to be
tried in the jurisdiction where the crime was committed. It would appear difficult
to employ language freer from ambiguity, yet for above twenty years the
non-slave-holding States generally have wholly refused to deliver up to us
persons charged with crimes affecting slave property. Our confederates, with
punic faith, shield and give sanctuary to all criminals who seek to deprive us
of this property or who use it to destroy us. This clause of the Constitution has
no other sanction than their good faith; that is withheld from us; we are
remediless in the Union; out of it we are remitted to the laws of nations.
A similar provision of the Constitution requires them to surrender fugitives
from labor. This provision and the one last referred to were our main
inducements for confederating with the Northern States. Without them it is
historically true that we would have rejected the Constitution. In the fourth
year of the Republic Congress passed a law to give full vigor and efficiency to
this important provision. This act depended to a considerable degree upon
the local magistrates in the several States for its efficiency. The
non-slave-holding States generally repealed all laws intended to aid the
execution of that act, and imposed penalties upon those citizens whose loyalty
to the Constitution and their oaths might induce them to discharge their duty.
Congress then passed the act of 1850, providing for the complete execution
of this duty by Federal officers. This law, which their own bad faith rendered
absolutely indispensible for the protection of constitutional rights, was
instantly met with ferocious revilings and all conceivable modes of hostility.
The Supreme Court unanimously, and their own local courts with equal
unanimity (with the single and temporary exception of the supreme court of
Wisconsin), sustained its constitutionality in all of its provisions. Yet it stands
to-day a dead letter for all practicable purposes in every non-slave-holding
State in the Union. We have their convenants, we have their oaths to keep
and observe it, but the unfortunate claimant, even accompanied by a Federal
officer with the mandate of the highest judicial authority in his hands, is
everywhere met with fraud, with force, and with legislative enactments to
elude, to resist, and defeat him. Claimants are murdered with impunity;
officers of the law are beaten by frantic mobs instigated by inflammatory
appeals from persons holding the highest public employment in these States,
and supported by legislation in conflict with the clearest provisions of the
Constitution, and even the ordinary principles of humanity. In several of our
confederate States a citizen cannot travel the highway with his servant who
may voluntarily accompany him, without being declared by law a felon and
being subjected to infamous punishments. It is difficult to perceive how we
could suffer more by the hostility than by the fraternity of such brethren.
The public law of civilized nations requires every State to restrain its citizens
or subjects from committing acts injurious to the peace and security of any
other State and from attempting to excite insurrection, or to lessen the
security, or to disturb the tranquillity of their neighbors, and our Constitution
wisely gives Congress the power to punish all offenses against the laws of
nations.
These are sound and just principles which have received the approbation of
just men in all countries and all centuries; but they are wholly disregarded by
the people of the Northern States, and the Federal Government is impotent to
maintain them. For twenty years past the abolitionists and their allies in the
Northern States have been engaged in constant efforts to subvert our
institutions and to excite insurrection and servile war among us. They have
sent emissaries among us for the accomplishment of these purposes. Some
of these efforts have received the public sanction of a majority of the leading
men of the Republican party in the national councils, the same men who are
now proposed as our rulers. These efforts have in one instance led to the
actual invasion of one of the slave-holding States, and those of the murderers
and incendiaries who escaped public justice by flight have found fraternal
protection among our Northern confederates.
These are the same men who say the Union shall be preserved.
Such are the opinions and such are the practices of the Republican party,
who have been called by their own votes to administer the Federal
Government under the Constitution of the United States. We know their
treachery; we know the shallow pretenses under which they daily disregard its
plainest obligations. If we submit to them it will be our fault and not theirs. The
people of Georgia have ever been willing to stand by this bargain, this
contract; they have never sought to evade any of its obligations; they have
never hitherto sought to establish any new government; they have struggled
to maintain the ancient right of themselves and the human race through and
by that Constitution. But they know the value of parchment rights in
treacherous hands, and therefore they refuse to commit their own to the
rulers whom the North offers us. Why? Because by their declared principles
and policy they have outlawed $3,000,000,000 of our property in the common
territories of the Union; put it under the ban of the Republic in the States
where it exists and out of the protection of Federal law everywhere; because
they give sanctuary to thieves and incendiaries who assail it to the whole
extent of their power, in spite of their most solemn obligations and covenants;
because their avowed purpose is to subvert our society and subject us not
only to the loss of our property but the destruction of ourselves, our wives,
and our children, and the desolation of our homes, our altars, and our
firesides. To avoid these evils we resume the powers which our fathers
delegated to the Government of the United States, and henceforth will seek
new safeguards for our liberty, equality, security, and tranquillity.
[Approved, Tuesday, January 29, 1861]
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[Copied by Justin Sanders from the Official Records, Ser IV, vol 1, pp. 81-85.]
The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the
Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates
and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten
years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our
non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African
slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our
domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their
express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and by
the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us
of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic. This hostile
policy of our confederates has been pursued with every circumstance of
aggravation which could arouse the passions and excite the hatred of our
people, and has placed the two sections of the Union for many years past in
the condition of virtual civil war. Our people, still attached to the Union from
habit and national traditions, and averse to change, hoped that time, reason,
and argument would bring, if not redress, at least exemption from further
insults, injuries, and dangers. Recent events have fully dissipated all such
hopes and demonstrated the necessity of separation. Our Northern
confederates, after a full and calm hearing of all the facts, after a fair warning
of our purpose not to submit to the rule of the authors of all these wrongs and
injuries, have by a large majority committed the Government of the United
States into their hands. The people of Georgia, after an equally full and fair
and deliberate hearing of the case, have declared with equal firmness that
they shall not rule over them. A brief history of the rise, progress, and policy
of anti-slavery and the political organization into whose hands the
administration of the Federal Government has been committed will fully justify
the pronounced verdict of the people of Georgia. The party of Lincoln, called
the Republican party, under its present name and organization, is of recent
origin. It is admitted to be an anti-slavery party. While it attracts to itself by its
creed the scattered advocates of exploded political heresies, of condemned
theories in political economy, the advocates of commercial restrictions, of
protection, of special privileges, of waste and corruption in the administration
of Government, anti-slavery is its mission and its purpose. By anti-slavery it is
made a power in the state. The question of slavery was the great difficulty in
the way of the formation of the Constitution. While the subordination and the
political and social inequality of the African race was fully conceded by all, it
was plainly apparent that slavery would soon disappear from what are now the
non-slave-holding States of the original thirteen. The opposition to slavery
was then, as now, general in those States and the Constitution was made with
direct reference to that fact. But a distinct abolition party was not formed in
the United States for more than half a century after the Government went into
operation. The main reason was that the North, even if united, could not
control both branches of the Legislature during any portion of that time.
Therefore such an organization must have resulted either in utter failure or in
the total overthrow of the Government. The material prosperity of the North
was greatly dependent on the Federal Government; that of the the South not
at all. In the first years of the Republic the navigating, commercial, and
manufacturing interests of the North began to seek profit and aggrandizement
at the expense of the agricultural interests. Even the owners of fishing smacks
sought and obtained bounties for pursuing their own business (which yet
continue), and $500,000 is now paid them annually out of the Treasury. The
navigating interests begged for protection against foreign shipbuilders and
against competition in the coasting trade. Congress granted both requests,
and by prohibitory acts gave an absolute monopoly of this business to each of
their interests, which they enjoy without diminution to this day. Not content with
these great and unjust advantages, they have sought to throw the legitimate
burden of their business as much as possible upon the public; they have
succeeded in throwing the cost of light-houses, buoys, and the maintenance
of their seamen upon the Treasury, and the Government now pays above
$2,000,000 annually for the support of these objects. Theses interests, in
connection with the commercial and manufacturing classes, have also
succeeded, by means of subventions to mail steamers and the reduction in
postage, in relieving their business from the payment of about $7,000,000
annually, throwing it upon the public Treasury under the name of postal
deficiency. The manufacturing interests entered into the same struggle early,
and has clamored steadily for Government bounties and special favors. This
interest was confined mainly to the Eastern and Middle non-slave-holding
States. Wielding these great States it held great power and influence, and its
demands were in full proportion to its power. The manufacturers and miners
wisely based their demands upon special facts and reasons rather than upon
general principles, and thereby mollified much of the opposition of the
opposing interest. They pleaded in their favor the infancy of their business in
this country, the scarcity of labor and capital, the hostile legislation of other
countries toward them, the great necessity of their fabrics in the time of war,
and the necessity of high duties to pay the debt incurred in our war for
independence. These reasons prevailed, and they received for many years
enormous bounties by the general acquiescence of the whole country.
But when these reasons ceased they were no less clamorous for Government
protection, but their clamors were less heeded-- the country had put the
principle of protection upon trial and condemned it. After having enjoyed
protection to the extent of from 15 to 200 per cent. upon their entire business
for above thirty years, the act of 1846 was passed. It avoided sudden change,
but the principle was settled, and free trade, low duties, and economy in
public expenditures was the verdict of the American people. The South and
the Northwestern States sustained this policy. There was but small hope of its
reversal; upon the direct issue, none at all.
All these classes saw this and felt it and cast about for new allies. The
anti-slavery sentiment of the North offered the best chance for success. An
anti-slavery party must necessarily look to the North alone for support, but a
united North was now strong enough to control the Government in all of its
departments, and a sectional party was therefore determined upon. Time and
issues upon slavery were necessary to its completion and final triumph. The
feeling of anti-slavery, which it was well known was very general among the
people of the North, had been long dormant or passive; it needed only a
question to arouse it into aggressive activity. This question was before us. We
had acquired a large territory by successful war with Mexico; Congress had to
govern it; how, in relation to slavery, was the question then demanding
solution. This state of facts gave form and shape to the anti-slavery sentiment
throughout the North and the conflict began. Northern anti-slavery men of all
parties asserted the right to exclude slavery from the territory by
Congressional legislation and demanded the prompt and efficient exercise of
this power to that end. This insulting and unconstitutional demand was met
with great moderation and firmness by the South. We had shed our blood and
paid our money for its acquisition; we demanded a division of it on the line of
the Missouri restriction or an equal participation in the whole of it. These
propositions were refused, the agitation became general, and the public
danger was great. The case of the South was impregnable. The price of the
acquisition was the blood and treasure of both sections-- of all, and,
therefore, it belonged to all upon the principles of equity and justice.
The Constitution delegated no power to Congress to excluded either party
from its free enjoyment; therefore our right was good under the Constitution.
Our rights were further fortified by the practice of the Government from the
beginning. Slavery was forbidden in the country northwest of the Ohio River
by what is called the ordinance of 1787. That ordinance was adopted under
the old confederation and by the assent of Virginia, who owned and ceded the
country, and therefore this case must stand on its own special circumstances.
The Government of the United States claimed territory by virtue of the treaty
of 1783 with Great Britain, acquired territory by cession from Georgia and
North Carolina, by treaty from France, and by treaty from Spain. These
acquisitions largely exceeded the original limits of the Republic. In all of these
acquisitions the policy of the Government was uniform. It opened them to the
settlement of all the citizens of all the States of the Union. They emigrated
thither with their property of every kind (including slaves). All were equally
protected by public authority in their persons and property until the
inhabitants became sufficiently numerous and otherwise capable of bearing
the burdens and performing the duties of self-government, when they were
admitted into the Union upon equal terms with the other States, with whatever
republican constitution they might adopt for themselves.
Under this equally just and beneficent policy law and order, stability and
progress, peace and prosperity marked every step of the progress of these
new communities until they entered as great and prosperous commonwealths
into the sisterhood of American States. In 1820 the North endeavored to
overturn this wise and successful policy and demanded that the State of
Missouri should not be admitted into the Union unless she first prohibited
slavery within her limits by her constitution. After a bitter and protracted
struggle the North was defeated in her special object, but her policy and
position led to the adoption of a section in the law for the admission of
Missouri, prohibiting slavery in all that portion of the territory acquired from
France lying North of 36 [degrees] 30 [minutes] north latitude and outside of
Missouri. The venerable Madison at the time of its adoption declared it
unconstitutional. Mr. Jefferson condemned the restriction and foresaw its
consequences and predicted that it would result in the dissolution of the
Union. His prediction is now history. The North demanded the application of
the principle of prohibition of slavery to all of the territory acquired from
Mexico and all other parts of the public domain then and in all future time. It
was the announcement of her purpose to appropriate to herself all the public
domain then owned and thereafter to be acquired by the United States. The
claim itself was less arrogant and insulting than the reason with which she
supported it. That reason was her fixed purpose to limit, restrain, and finally
abolish slavery in the States where it exists. The South with great unanimity
declared her purpose to resist the principle of prohibition to the last extremity.
This particular question, in connection with a series of questions affecting the
same subject, was finally disposed of by the defeat of prohibitory legislation.
The Presidential election of 1852 resulted in the total overthrow of the
advocates of restriction and their party friends. Immediately after this result
the anti-slavery portion of the defeated party resolved to unite all the
elements in the North opposed to slavery an to stake their future political
fortunes upon their hostility to slavery everywhere. This is the party two whom
the people of the North have committed the Government. They raised their
standard in 1856 and were barely defeated. They entered the Presidential
contest again in 1860 and succeeded.
The prohibition of slavery in the Territories, hostility to it everywhere, the
equality of the black and white races, disregard of all constitutional
guarantees in its favor, were boldly proclaimed by its leaders and applauded
by its followers.
With these principles on their banners and these utterances on their lips the
majority of the people of the North demand that we shall receive them as our
rulers.
The prohibition of slavery in the Territories is the cardinal principle of this
organization.
For forty years this question has been considered and debated in the halls of
Congress, before the people, by the press, and before the tribunals of justice.
The majority of the people of the North in 1860 decided it in their own favor.
We refuse to submit to that judgment, and in vindication of our refusal we
offer the Constitution of our country and point to the total absence of any
express power to exclude us. We offer the practice of our Government for the
first thirty years of its existence in complete refutation of the position that any
such power is either necessary or proper to the execution of any other power
in relation to the Territories. We offer the judgment of a large minority of the
people of the North, amounting to more than one-third, who united with the
unanimous voice of the South against this usurpation; and, finally, we offer
the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest judicial
tribunal of our country, in our favor. This evidence ought to be conclusive that
we have never surrendered this right. The conduct of our adversaries
admonishes us that if we had surrendered it, it is time to resume it.
The faithless conduct of our adversaries is not confined to such acts as might
aggrandize themselves or their section of the Union. They are content if they
can only injure us. The Constitution declares that persons charged with
crimes in one State and fleeing to another shall be delivered up on the
demand of the executive authority of the State from which they may flee, to be
tried in the jurisdiction where the crime was committed. It would appear difficult
to employ language freer from ambiguity, yet for above twenty years the
non-slave-holding States generally have wholly refused to deliver up to us
persons charged with crimes affecting slave property. Our confederates, with
punic faith, shield and give sanctuary to all criminals who seek to deprive us
of this property or who use it to destroy us. This clause of the Constitution has
no other sanction than their good faith; that is withheld from us; we are
remediless in the Union; out of it we are remitted to the laws of nations.
A similar provision of the Constitution requires them to surrender fugitives
from labor. This provision and the one last referred to were our main
inducements for confederating with the Northern States. Without them it is
historically true that we would have rejected the Constitution. In the fourth
year of the Republic Congress passed a law to give full vigor and efficiency to
this important provision. This act depended to a considerable degree upon
the local magistrates in the several States for its efficiency. The
non-slave-holding States generally repealed all laws intended to aid the
execution of that act, and imposed penalties upon those citizens whose loyalty
to the Constitution and their oaths might induce them to discharge their duty.
Congress then passed the act of 1850, providing for the complete execution
of this duty by Federal officers. This law, which their own bad faith rendered
absolutely indispensible for the protection of constitutional rights, was
instantly met with ferocious revilings and all conceivable modes of hostility.
The Supreme Court unanimously, and their own local courts with equal
unanimity (with the single and temporary exception of the supreme court of
Wisconsin), sustained its constitutionality in all of its provisions. Yet it stands
to-day a dead letter for all practicable purposes in every non-slave-holding
State in the Union. We have their convenants, we have their oaths to keep
and observe it, but the unfortunate claimant, even accompanied by a Federal
officer with the mandate of the highest judicial authority in his hands, is
everywhere met with fraud, with force, and with legislative enactments to
elude, to resist, and defeat him. Claimants are murdered with impunity;
officers of the law are beaten by frantic mobs instigated by inflammatory
appeals from persons holding the highest public employment in these States,
and supported by legislation in conflict with the clearest provisions of the
Constitution, and even the ordinary principles of humanity. In several of our
confederate States a citizen cannot travel the highway with his servant who
may voluntarily accompany him, without being declared by law a felon and
being subjected to infamous punishments. It is difficult to perceive how we
could suffer more by the hostility than by the fraternity of such brethren.
The public law of civilized nations requires every State to restrain its citizens
or subjects from committing acts injurious to the peace and security of any
other State and from attempting to excite insurrection, or to lessen the
security, or to disturb the tranquillity of their neighbors, and our Constitution
wisely gives Congress the power to punish all offenses against the laws of
nations.
These are sound and just principles which have received the approbation of
just men in all countries and all centuries; but they are wholly disregarded by
the people of the Northern States, and the Federal Government is impotent to
maintain them. For twenty years past the abolitionists and their allies in the
Northern States have been engaged in constant efforts to subvert our
institutions and to excite insurrection and servile war among us. They have
sent emissaries among us for the accomplishment of these purposes. Some
of these efforts have received the public sanction of a majority of the leading
men of the Republican party in the national councils, the same men who are
now proposed as our rulers. These efforts have in one instance led to the
actual invasion of one of the slave-holding States, and those of the murderers
and incendiaries who escaped public justice by flight have found fraternal
protection among our Northern confederates.
These are the same men who say the Union shall be preserved.
Such are the opinions and such are the practices of the Republican party,
who have been called by their own votes to administer the Federal
Government under the Constitution of the United States. We know their
treachery; we know the shallow pretenses under which they daily disregard its
plainest obligations. If we submit to them it will be our fault and not theirs. The
people of Georgia have ever been willing to stand by this bargain, this
contract; they have never sought to evade any of its obligations; they have
never hitherto sought to establish any new government; they have struggled
to maintain the ancient right of themselves and the human race through and
by that Constitution. But they know the value of parchment rights in
treacherous hands, and therefore they refuse to commit their own to the
rulers whom the North offers us. Why? Because by their declared principles
and policy they have outlawed $3,000,000,000 of our property in the common
territories of the Union; put it under the ban of the Republic in the States
where it exists and out of the protection of Federal law everywhere; because
they give sanctuary to thieves and incendiaries who assail it to the whole
extent of their power, in spite of their most solemn obligations and covenants;
because their avowed purpose is to subvert our society and subject us not
only to the loss of our property but the destruction of ourselves, our wives,
and our children, and the desolation of our homes, our altars, and our
firesides. To avoid these evils we resume the powers which our fathers
delegated to the Government of the United States, and henceforth will seek
new safeguards for our liberty, equality, security, and tranquillity.
[Approved, Tuesday, January 29, 1861]
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