Report from William L. Harris to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; December 31, 1860

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Report from William L. Harris to Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus; December 31, 1860

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Baldwin, Abraham, 1754-1807 Brinson, J. W.Buchanan, James, 1791-1868 Clay, Henry, 1777-1852 Gibson, William Harris, William Littleton, 1807-1868 Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845 Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Madison, James, 1751-1836 Mason, George, 1725-1792.Pettus, John Jones, 1813-1867 Pilcher, W. H.Randolph, Edmund Jennings, 1753-1813 Troup, George Michael, 1780-1856

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Conventions Conventions--Constitutional Convention (U.S.) (1787)Conventions--Mississippi. Convention (1861)Emancipation and self emancipation Legislation. United States. Congress Legislation. United States. Congress. Fugitive Slave Law (1850)Political elections Political elections--Election of 1860 Secession. American Civil War

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Georgia--General Assembly Georgia--General Assembly. House of Representatives Political Parties Political Parties--Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- )

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Publishers and Printers Publishers and Printers--Boughton, Nisbet, & Barnes State Printers (Milledgeville, Ga.)

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Bodies of Water--International. Gulf of Mexico Georgia Georgia--Baldwin County. Milledgeville North Carolina South Carolina

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Abolitionists African Americans African Americans--Enslaved People African Americans--Historically Free and Newly Freed Immigrants

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Page 1

ADDRESS
OF
HON. W. L. HARRIS,
Commissioner from the State of Mississippi,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE
STATE OF GEORGIA,
On Monday, Dec. 17^th, 1860.

Published By Order of the Legislature.

BOUGHTON, NISBET & BARNES, STATE PRINTERS.
MILLEDGEVILLE, GA.

1860

Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

MILLEDGEVILLE, GA., Dec. 17^th, 1860.

To Hon. W.L. Harris, Commisioner of the State of Mississippi:

DEAR SIR—The undersigned Committee, appointed by the House of Representatives of the State of Georgia, to solicit of you a copy of your patriotic address, delivered before the Gen-eral Assembly, have the pleasure to communicate the same to you, with hope that you will comply with our reasonable request. We have the honor to be yours, with considerations of respect.

W. H. PILCHER,
J. W. BRINSON,
WM GIBSON,

Committee.

MILLEDGEVILLE, GA., Dec 17^th, 1860.

Gentlemen: Yours of this date, requesting, on behalf of the House of Representatives of the State of Georgia, a copy of ~~this~~ ^the^ address, I had the honor to deliver this day before the General Assembly, is before me.

I will place the desired copy at your disposal, at the earliest moment in my power.

With grateful feelings to the distinguished body you represent, for the compliment implied in their resolution, I am, gentlemen,

Very respectfully, your ob't serv't,
William L. Harris.
Messrs. W. H. Pilcher, J. W. Brinson, Wm. Gibson, Com.

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ADDRESS.

Mr. President, and gentlemen of the Senate House of Representatives of the State of Georgia:

I am profoundly sensible of the delicate and important duty imposed upon me, by the courtesy of this public re-ception.

Under different circumstances, it would have afforded me great pleasure, as a native Georgian—reared and educated on her soil—to express to you fully, the views which pre-vail ^adopted^ in my ~~native~~ State, in relation to the great measures of deliverance and relief from the principles and policy of the new Administration, which are there in progress.

I cannot consent, however, upon the very heel of your ar-duous and exciting session, to avail myself of your respectful courtesy to the State I have the honor to represent, as well as your personal kindness to her humble representative, to prolong the discussion of a subject which, however impor-tant and absorbing, has, doubtless, been already exhausted in your hearing, by some of the first intellects of your State, if not of the nation.

I beg, therefore, to refer you to the action of Mississippi—already submitted to your Executive—to ask for her the sympathy and co-operation she seeks for the common good, and briefly to suggest to you some of the motives which in-fluence her conduct.

I am instructed by the resolution from which I derive my mission, to inform the State of Georgia, that Mississippi has passed an act calling a convention of her people, "to consid-er the present threatening relations of the Northern and Southern sections of the Confederacy—aggravated by the re-cent election of a President, upon principles of hostility to the States of the South; and to express the earnest hope of Mississippi, that this State will co-operate with her in the adoption of efficient measures for their common defence and safety."

It will be remembered, that the violation of our constitu-tional rights, which has caused such a universal dissatisfaction in the South, is not of recent date. Ten years since, this Union was rocked from centre to circumference, by the very same outrages, of which we now complain, only now "ag-

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-gravated" by the recent election. Nothing but her devo-tion to the Union our Fathers made, induced the South, then, to yield to a compromise, in which Mr. Clay rightly said, we had yielded everything but our honor. We had then in Mississippi a warm contest, which finally ended in reluctant acquiescence in the Compromise measures. The North pledged anew her faith to yield to us our constitu-tional rights in relation to slave property. They are now, and have been ever since that act, denied to us, until her broken faith and impudent threats, had become almost in-sufferable before the late election.

There were three candidates presented to the North by Southern men, all of whom represented the last degree of conservatism and concession, which their respective parties were willing to yield, to appease the fanaticism of the North. Some of them were scarcely deemed sound, in the South, on the slavery question, and none of them suited our ultra men. And yet the North rejected them all; and their united voice, both before and since their overwhelming triumph in this election, has been more defiant and more intolerant than ever before. They have demanded, and now demand, equality between the white and negro races, under our Constitution; equality in representation, equali-ty in the right of suffrage, equality in the honors and emol-uments of office, equality in the social circle, equality in the rights or matrimony. The cry has been, and now is, "that slavery must cease, or American liberty must perish," that "the success of Black Republicanism is the triumph of anti-slavery," "a revolution in the tendencies of the government that must be carried out."

To-day our government stands totally revolutionized, in its main features, and our Constitution broken and overturned. The new administration, which has effected this revolution, only awaits the 4th of March for the inauguration of the new government, the new principles, and the new policy, upon the success of which they have proclaimed freedom to the slave, but eternal degradation for you and for us.

No revolution was ever more complete, though bloodless, if you will tamely submit to the destruction of that Consti-tution and that Union our fathers made.

Our fathers made this a government for the white man, rejecting the negro, as an ignorant, inferior, barbarian race, incapable of self-government, and not, therefore, entitled to be associated with the white man upon terms of civil, political, or social equality.

This new administration comes into power, under the solemn pledge to overturn and strike down this great fea-ture of our Union, without which it would never have

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been formed, and to substitute in its stead their new theory of the universal equality of the black and white races.

Our fathers secured to us, by our Constitutional Union, now being overturned by this Black Republican rule, pro-tection to life, liberty and property, all over the Union, and wherever its flag was unfurled, whether on land or sea.

Under this wretched, lawless spirit and policy, now usurping the control of that government, citizens of the South have been deprived of their property, and for at-tempting to seek the redress promised by the compromise laws, have lost their liberty and their lives.

Equality of rights secured to white men, in equal sover-eign States, is among the most prominent features of the Consitution under which we have so long lived.

This equality has been denied us in the South for years in the common territories, while the North has virtually distributed them as bounties to abolition fanatics and foreigners, for their brigand service in aiding in our exclusion.

Our Constitution, in unmistakable language, guarantees the return of our fugitive slaves. Congress has recognized her duty in this respect, by enacting proper laws for the enforcement of this right.

And yet these laws have been continually nullified, and the solemn pledge of the Compromise of 1850, by which the North came under renewed obligations to enforce them, has been faithlessly disregarded, and the government and its officers set at defiance.

Who now expects these rebels against the laws passed by their own consent and procurement—rebels against justice and common honesty—to become pious patriots by the ac-quisition of power? Who now expects Mr. Lincoln to be-come conservative, when the only secret of his success, and the only foundation of his authority, is the will and com-mand of that robber clan, whose mere instrument he is, who have achieved this revolution in our government by treading under their unhallowed feet our Constitution and laws and the Union of our fathers, and by openly defying high heaven by wilful and corrupt perjury?

And, above all, who is it in the South, born or descended or Revolutionary sires, who so loves such company, as that he will long hesitate before he can obtain the consent of a vir-tuous and patriotic heart and conscience to separate from them forever?

Mississippi is firmly convinced that there is but one alter-native:

This new union with Lincoln Black Republicans and free negroes, without slavery; or, slavery under out old constitu

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tional bond of union, without Lincoln Black Republicans, or free negroes either, to molest us.

If we take the former, then submission to negro equality is our fate. If the latter, then secession is inevitable—each State for itself and by itself, but with a view to the imme-diate formation of a Southern Confederacy, under our pre-sent Constitution, by such of the slaveholding States as shall agree in their conventions to unite with us.

Mississippi seeks no delay—the issue is not new to her people. They have long and anxiously watched its ap-proach—they think it too late, now, to negotiate more com-promises with bankrupts in political integrity whose recre-ancy to justice, good faith and constitutional obligations is the most cherished feature of their political organization.

She has exhausted her rights in sacrificial offerings to save the Union, until nearly all is lost but her honor and the courage to defend it. She has tried conventions until they have become the ridicule of both our friends and our enemies—mere instruments of fraudulent evasion and delay, to wear out the spirit of our people and encourage the hopes of our common enemy. In short, she is sick and tired of the North, and pants for some respite from eternal disturbance and disquiet.

She comes now to you,—our glorious old mother,—the land of Baldwin, who first defiantly asserted and preserved your rights as to slavery, in the federal convention, in opposition to Messrs. Madison, Mason, and Randolph, and the whole Union except the two Carolinas,—the land of Jack-son, who immortalized himself by his bold exposure and successful overthrow of a legislative fraud and usurpation upon the rights of the people,—the land of Troup, the sternest Roman of them all, who, single—handed and alone, without co-operation, without consultation, but with truth and justice, and the courage of freemen at home on his side, defied this National Government in its usurpations on the threats of Federal coercion. It is to you we come,—the brightest exemplar among the advocates and defenders of State rights and State remedies,—to take counsel and solicit sympathy in this hour of our common trial.

I ask you, shall Mississippi follow in the footsteps of Georgia, when led by her gallant Troup? Or, is it reserved for this generation to repudiate and expunge the brightest page in the history of my native State? Impossible! God forbid it! Forbid it, ye people of all Northern and Western Georgia, who, to-day, owe your existence and unparalleled prosperity to the maintenance of your rights at the risk of civil war.

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I see around me some gallant spirits who bore their share in the dangers, and now wear with honor, here to-day in this Hall the laurels won on the side of their State, un-der the banner, inscribed "Troup and the treaty" in that memorable struggle. Need I appeal to them in behalf of my adopted State, to know on what side they will range them-selves in this struggle of right, against ~~assumption~~^,^ of brute ^usurpation^ force, against the Constitutional rights of a sister of this confederacy of equal States? I make no such appeal; I know where you stand. To doubt it would be to offer you the grossest iusult.

In this school of old republican orthodoxy, I drew my first breath. It was here, I first studied, then embraced, and next feebly advocated the principle of State Rights and ^S^ State remedies of resistance to tyranny—of the supremacy and sovereignty of the people of a State, and the subservi-ency of governments to their peace and happiness and safe-ty. These principles will descend with me to the grave, ^where^ ~~when~~ this frail tenement of dust must perish ; but they will live on with time, and only perish when tyranny shall be no more.

I need not remind your great State, that thousands and thousands of her sons and daughters, who have sought and found happy homes and prosperous fortunes in the distant forests of her old colonial domain, though now adopted children of Mississippi, still cling with the fond embrace of filial love to this old mother of States and of statesmen, from whom both they and their adopted State derive their ori-gin. It will be difficult for such to conceive, that they are not still the objects of your kind solicitude and maternal sympathy.

Mississippi indulges the most confident expectation and belief, founded on sources of information she cannot doubt, as well as on the existence of causes, operating upon them, alike as upon her, that every other Gulf State will stand by her side in defence of the position she is about to assume ; and she would reproach herself, and every Georgia son within her limits, would swell with indignation, if she hesitated to be-lieve that Georgia too, would blend her fate with her natu-ral friends; her sons and daughters—her neighboring sis-ters in the impending struggle.

Whatever may be the result of your deliberations, I beg to assure her from my intimate knowledge of the spirit and affections of our people, that no enemy to herconstitutional rights, may consider his victory won, while a Mississippian lives to prolong the contest. Sink or swim, live or die, sur-vive or perish, the part of Mississippi is chosen, she will nev-

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-er submit to the principles and policy of this Black Republican Administration.

She had rather see the last of her race, men, women and children, immolated in one common funeral pile, than see them subjected to the degradation of civil, political and so-cial equality with the negro race.

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To his Excellency. John J. Pettus
Govenor of the State of Mississippi

Dear Sir

I have the honor to report herewith, the proceedings of the Legislature of ^the State of^ Georgia, on my reception as commissioner, by your appointment, from the State of Mississippi, also a copy of my address delivered before that Body—

I should do injustice to my own feelings—to the people of Mississippi—& more than all, to the authorities & people of the State of Georgia if I failed to make known here, the distinguished kindness, & prompt. attention—with which your Commissioner was greeted, at the capitol of Georgia. As a native Son of Georgia, I felt proud of the dignity, generosity, & Fraternity of her honored Sons in their reception of ^your^ agent, & their cordial response to the message of Mississippi which I had the honor to communicate and as an adopted Son of Mississippi & her accredited agent, I was equally proud, to be the recipient, for her, of the friendly greeting and assurance, unanimously extended—& here-with communicated, to your Excellency.

It affords me pleasure to add that while their may be differences among her distinguished Sons & their respective supporters, as to some minor matters, there

Page 10

~~there~~ is but one voice in Georgia as to her secession, in the event that Mississippi Alabama & Florida Shall have taken that step, before the meeting of her convention on the 16^th Jany! I have the fullest confidence that Georgia will never separate herself. from her Sisters & her children, of the Gulf-States. Nothing but hesitation, indecision, or delay, upon their part, will impede her onward march with them, to vindicate our common rights & redress our common wrongs—.

Very respectfully
Your obt svt

William L. Harris
Commissioner from
the state of Mississippi
to the state of Georgia

Jackson
Decr 31^st 1860