Letter from W. S. Featherston to Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin; December 19, 1860

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Letter from W. S. Featherston to Kentucky Governor Beriah Magoffin; December 19, 1860

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People

Featherston, Winfield Scott, 1819-1891 Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Magoffin, Beriah, 1815-1885 Pettus, John Jones, 1813-1867

Events

Conventions Conventions--Mississippi. Convention (1861)Political elections Political elections--Election of 1860

Organizations

Mississippi--Legislature

Occupations

Legislators

Places

Kentucky--Franklin County. Frankfort

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[seal]

Frankfort Ky
Dec^br 19th 1860.

To His Excellency B. Magoffin.

Sir;

I herewith transmit to your Excellency a series of resolutions passed by the Legislature of Mississippi at a called session thereof on the 30^th day of November 1860.. By these resolutions the Governor of Mississippi is authorized and requested to appoint as many commissioners as in his judgement may be necessary to visit each of the slave holding states and inform them that the Legislature of Mississippi had passed an act calling a convention of the people of said state to consider the present threatening relations of the Northern and Southern sections of the Confederacy, aggrivated by the recent election of a President on principles of hostility to the states of the south, and to express the earnest hope of Mississippi that those states will co-operate with her, in the adoption of efficient measures for their common defence and safety—

The resolutions further provide, "That should any Southern state not have convened its Legislature, the commissioner to such state, shall

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appeal to the Governor thereof to call the Legislature together, in order that its co-operatin may be immediately secured"—

In discharging the duty which devolved on the Executive of Mississippi by the resolution referenced to, His Excellency John J. Pettus has conferred on me the appointment of commissioner to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, I am now ready to lay before your Excellency my credentials and to enter into the Conference contemplated by the Legislature of Mississippi in creating and filling this mission, I have the honor to wait your Excellencys reply.

Very Respectfully
W. S. Featherston.