New Orleans daily crescent., 1860-12-11
SDAY MORNING, DECEMBER II, 1860.
GOVERNORS MESSAGE
OF THE STATE oF LOUISIANA

OF THE STATE oF LOUISIANA.
Gentlemen of he Senate apd Of he House 3f Rep
TesentdtUes of the General assembly Of The State
Of louisiana:
Ihave convened your honorable bodies at this
unusual time to consi6ar the condition Of our
ernment, before the control Of that Government ls
| legged In the hands of party whose avoWeq
principles are in antagonsn to tie interests, the
dignity, and the well being Of Louisiana. The oe-
casion calls for grave deliberation wise counsel,
| cool judgment, and manly action. IA will be your
province to decide whether its importance justifies
the assembling of the people, through their dele
| gates In extraordinary Convention; TO determine,
in that sovereign capacity, the remedy proper to
| be applied to existing evils. Never have ne been
more in need Of the protecting care and wise guild
ance of that Divine Providence, wkcse aid and in
1uences it becomes States as well as individuals to
| invoke.
An event has now occurred Of the gravest i'm
port to the people Of this whole country but espe
| cally to those of the Southern States. Abraham
Lincoln and Hannibal Hamin having received the
Endorsement of the political party calling itself Re-
publican, the fundamental principle of which is an
unreasoning and fanatica hostility to slavery, have
| now been elected to the two highest offices in our
Federal Government, by purely sectional vote,
and in contempt of the earnest protest of theother
| section, that such election would be considered
| evidence OF deliberate design to pervert the
powers of the Government to the immediate injury
and ultimate destruction of its peculiar institution.
| Thirty years ago, the public expression Of such
| opinions as are now entertained ana aV0WeQ by
these two men, in any part of this country, outside
| Of New England, would have insured to their
utterer swift and ignominious punishment. The
| representative man of those opinions, chosen as
/ the instrument to effect their practical operation
| upon the Administration of the National Govern
/ ment, is now about to occupy the chair Of Wash
| ington. So great has been the change of public
sentiment in the non-slayeholding States of this
Confederacy upon question vital to our interests,
| and interviewer with every ramitieation of our
social system.
/ feel myself oppressed by the magnitude Of the
issue involved in the action of our State at this
crisis. have beheld with admiration the beauti-
full and well-proportioned fabric made by fore
fathers hands, of Union of equals, under safe
guards provided by Constitution adapted to the
wants of the age in which it was made. have
| clung with warm affection to the Government,
| under which we have become SO prosperous and
/ great, and have endeavored to repel the conyic-
ton. which events have forced upon me, that that
Government is about to be perverted to purposes
never designed by its founders; that the Union is
broken in spirit by the attempted destruction of
the equality of the States which compose it, and
the forms of the Constitution invoked to cloak the
preparation of outrages upon the rights of some
of the soyereignties which formed it.
/ Slavery existed in the Colonies in the Revolu
tionary era, and in every State bnt one when the
/ Constitution was formed. Its existence was recog-
nzed in that instrument by providing for its repre-
sentation in the popular House of the National
4 Legislature. The master was protected by an eN-
press affirmation of his right as a citizen of one
i State to have " delivered up'' to him his slave
Escaping into another" To this agreement and
compact sovereign States assented; twas part of
the bond it was one of the conditions of fellow
| Ship one of the inducements to the States
where slaves were most numerous, and slavery
was thought to be permanently fixed, to Sc
cure their adhesion to q Union which all then
believed would insure domestic tranquility'' and
promote the general welfare" In few years
the States having an nngenial climate and sterile
soil found they had no need of slavery as system
4 of labor, and abolished it within their own limits.
They were prompted to this not by considerations of
mock philanthropy, as is assumed in the hypocrtical
cant of these latter days, but simply and exclusively
by regard to their material interests. Other States
situated in more tropical cline, and having within
their borders soil adapted to the growth Of pro.
ducts which increase the happiness and augment
the wealth of mankind, have retained slavery, be
cause practical experience has demonstrated thai
it is useful, profitable and essential While how
ever, the great law of necessity and adaptation has
controlled the operation of changes in two system:
of labor, we have not ignored the moral and social
aspect of the question. Men of intelligence-poli
ticians, moralists and Internationally apollo
gized for the existence of slavery among US on the
score of nexorabie necessity, and shrank from a
defense of their people for its retention. But
when Aholitionism, emboldened by increasing
strength began to attack our system of labor as
sin and crime, the moral and ndfeligious aspects Of
the question became the subjects of scrutiny and
the result has been complete vindication OF
> our institution, and correction of popular
errors concerning it. We have decided to retain
it, and believe that any other people similarly
eircumstaneed, will be benefited by it. The
non-slaveholding States got rid of it, and we did
; not complain. They exercised their own judgment
and gratifed their own desires by that act. But
these States not only determined that they would
not have slavery themselves, but they have also
declared that no new Sovereignty within the sphere
of their influence shall have it, and new sol
l. shall be worked by it, although the inhabitants
shall have carried Slaves along with the other mem
bers of their household and other property to the
new home, and shall themselves desire the exist
enee of the institution. This is an intolerant AMI
iptal la anti nfn Irfc {
reckless resolve to disregard the rights of Southern
citizens, and to deprive us of one of the inheren
. and necessary privileges which attach to US a
. equals.
I So long as such sentiments were confined Il
scattered, and uninfuential, and demented zealot
! in New England, they excited no other feeling thai
:. eontemptuous commisseration, but they have nov
permeated the whole structure of social and in
4 dustral life in the non-saveholding States, ant
. leavened the whole mass. Their gradual propaga
tion has been evinced by the legislation of thes
States. Nearly every one of them have nullifiet
. the Fugitive Slave law, and enacted the mos
stringent penalties against assisting any master il
recovering his slave. There are not more thai
> two, or at most three, Northern States, think
: that have not legislated in some manner inimica
to the clear constitutional right of the slave
in this particular. The use of their prisons is de
MED for the Judgement Of escaped slaves, ans
, every officer and citizen is forbidden, under pain o
punishment, heavier than .hat inflicted by then
! for some heinous crimes, to aid or assist in aa,
manner in the capture of our negroes, while tn
complete freedom OF ttle Save from any daEEe
= from arrest and detention IS secured by Persona
; Liberty bills. They boast of annually deprving u
Il of that species Of property to the extent Of million
:, of dollars. Their citizens form combinations t
; prevent the emigration of Southern citizens wit
i their slaves into the unoccupied and common
; domain of the country. The man who is now tn
President elect of this Republic of States, he's dc
2 clared. at recent date, that we could not RENAL
\ as we have ever been, part slave and part free
4 but that the conflict between the Northern an
Southern systems of labor must end with the dowr
fall of slavery.
:, The election of Mr.. Lincoln by tho Nerther
. people, the representative Of these opinions
and the executor OF such intentions IS aye fore
. shadowed without ambiguity by the public me
and political bodies having affinity with him, show
C. that the Northern mind is poisoned against us
q and that it no longer respects rights, the
Obligations. The large majorities given in most
IN these States for the Electors favorable to MI
'5 Lincoln, is On evidence of Che uniEersality
IN this feeling of hostility to Institutions and
as the depth to which this delusoa OF the popular min
n has penetrated. The wise ccUnsels of the Fathe5
lit are forgotten or nnheeded-the fratarnal remos4
10 frances of the Sonth, whether made by ndivida!
e citizens, or sovereign States, are Gigregarded-:h
warning of ono of their own statesman, himself Ia
Ex.Prasident, that the South neither would NJ
I'd ought to submit to the election Of any one avown
e their traorous policy, has been taeated idia ga