Letter from James A. Lyons to Mississippi Governor Charles Clark

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Letter from James A. Lyons to Mississippi Governor Charles Clark

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People

Clark, Charles, 1811-1877 Clayton, R.Lyon, James A.

Events

Crime Crime--Assault and battery Crime--Murder Emancipation and self emancipation Trial

Organizations and Businesses

Mississippi. Legislature

Places

Columbus (Miss.)

Social Identifiers

African Americans Enslaved people Enslavers

Vital Statistics

Marriage

Page 1

Columbus Miss
Feb; 10. 1865;

To His Excellency
Gov^r Clark,

My dear Sir,

your reply of the 21^st ult came duly to hand. In it you state that my pamph-let On "Slavery & the Duties growing out of the relatives," had not yet come to hand, Lest it should fail to reach you, I herewith send you another copy—as I am very anxious that you should read it, From what you say in your letter of the 21^st ult, I am encouraged to hope that you will favor a reform on that subject,

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I am clearly satisfied that Reformation, and not Emancipation is the duty of the South—A judicious reform of the [?] of slavery is due alike, for ourselves, the slave, and the world,

I propose to procure the preparation of a Bill on that subject, with the aid of the Hon, Gen R, Clayton & others, and would be very much encouraged in the under-taking if it showed accord with your judgement to in-troduce this subject in yr message to the Legislature. I propose that the Bill should embrace four items, viz 1^st. A repeal of all preceding

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enactments prohibiting the owner or slave from teaching his servants to read—(please note what I say on this sub. just in my "Report")

2^d. The legalizing the marriage of slaves,

3. The legal recognition of the parental relation so that children shall not be sep-arated from their mother, short of 12 yrs of age,

4, The better guarding the life of the slave against the wanton of assaults or law, vicious, white men, by rendering slave testimony, in courts of law or equivi-olent to circumstantial evidence—that is it shall be void testimony when

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its truth is made manifest by other corroberating evidence, this would subject the slayer of a slave to a trial at least, if not conviction—and then, offord some safe guard to the life of the slave,

With these reforms, together with religious instruction, which must be enforced bymoral, not legal measures—Slavery would be what the Bible recognizes—and would be divested of its obnoxious features,

I should consider it a great honor for Mississippi to lead off in this reformation, And in my opinion, it would be the greatest of all peace measures.

I am very respectfully yr ob't ser't.

James A. Lyon