The Constitutional. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1860-1861, 1860-12-15
SPECIAL MESSAGE
OF THE
Governor of the State of Louisiana.


Of Representatives. ot'he GReral assembly
efMe State IF Louisjana.
have convened your Honorable Bodies at this
unusual time TO consider the condition of our
present and future relations to the Federal Govern
ment. before the control of that Government is
lodged into the hands of party. whose avowed
principles are in antagonism to the interests, the
dignity, and we'll being Of Louisiana. The occa-
sion calls for grave deliberaton, wise counsel,
cool judgement, and manly action. 1t will be
your province to decide whether its Importance
justifies the assembling of the people, through
their delegates, in extraordinary Convention, to
determine in their sovereign capacity, the remedy
proper to be applied to existing evils Never have
we been more in need of the protection care and
wise guidance of that Divine Providence, whose
aid and influence it becomes States as well as in
dyduals to invoke.
An event has now occurred Of the gravest I'M
port to the people Of this whole country, but es-
pecially to those of The Southern States. Abraham
the endorsement of the political party calling it.
self Republican, the fundamental principle of
which is an unreasoniny and fanatica hostility TO
slavery, have now been elected to the two highest
Offices in our Federal Government, by a purely
sectional vote, and in contempt of the earnest
protest Of the other section, that such election
would be considered evidence of deliberate de-
sign to pervert the powers of the Government, to
the immediate injury and ultimate destruction to
its peculiar institution. Thirty years ago, the
public expression of such opinions as are now
entertained and avowed by these two men, in any
part of this country, outside of New England,
would have Injured to their utter swift and igno-
minious punishment The representative man of
those opinions, chosen as the instrument to effect
their practical operation upon the administration
| of the National Government, is now about to oc-
cupy the chair of Washington. So great has been
the change ofpublic sentiment in the non-slav'-
holding States of the Confederacy upon ques-
ton, vital to our interests, and interviewer with
| every ratification of our social system.
feel myself oppressed by the magnitude Of
| the issue involved in the action of our State at
this crisis | have bcheld with admiration the
beautiful and wellproportioned fabric, made by
our fathers hands, of a Union of Equals, under
safeguards provided by Constitution adapted to
the wants of the age in which it was made.
have clung with warm affection TO the Govern
mcnt under which we have become prosperous
aud great, and have endeavored to repel the con-
| vctiun, which events have forced upon me, that
no rt,.l
purposes never designed by its founders tia; the
] Union is broken III spirit by the attempted de-
structon of the equality of the States which COM
pose it, and the forms of the Constitution invoked
to cloak the prrpenStion of outragrs upon the
lights of some of the SOyetcigntics which formed
| il.
Slavery existed in the Colonies in the Revoln-
tionary era, and in every State but enc, when the
Constitution was formed. Its existence was rrcOg-
nized in that instrument by providing for its rep
rescntation in the popular house Of the National
! Legislature. The Master was protected by an ex-
PRESS affirmation OF his right as a citizen of one
State to have delivered up 10 him his slave
Escaping into another" To this agreement and
compact, sovereign States asscntcd; it was part
of tine bond it one of the conditions offrllow-
ship-onc> of the inducements 10 the States where
| slaves Were mort numerous, and slavery was
thought 10 be permanently fixed, to secure their
adhesion 20 Il Cnion which all then believed
would ENSURE domestic tranquility and pro
mote the general welfare" In a few years the
! States having an ungenal climate and sterile
soil found they had no need of slavery as a sys-
TEN of labor, and abolished it within their own
limits. They were prompted to this not by con-
siIerations Of mock philanthropy, is assumed
in the hypocritical cant of these latter days, but
simply and exclusively by regard to their mate
rial interests. Other States, situated in a more
tropical cline, and having within their borders a
soil adapted to the growth of products which in
creased the happiness and Augment the wealth Of
mankind, have retained slavery, because practical
experience has demonstrated that it suseful, prof.
table, and essential. While, however, the great
law Of necessity and adaptation has controlled the
operation of changes in the two systems Of labor,
we have not ignored the moral and social aspect
of the question. Men of politicians,
mOraliSts, and statesmen-formerly apogzed for
the existence of slavery among us on the score OF
memorable necessity, and shank from a defense
of their people for its retention. But when Adolf
tionism, emboldoned by increasing strength, be-
gan to attack our system of labor as a sin and a
crime the moral and religious aspects Of the qucs
ton became the subject Of scrutiny, and the re-
suit has been complete vindieation of our iHst
tuition, and a correction of popular errors concern
ingit. We have decided to retain it, and believe
that any other people, similarly circumstance
will be benefited by it. The non-slaveholdng
States god nd of it, and we do not complain. They
exercised their own Judgment and gratified thei
own desires by that act But these States not only
determined that they would not have slavery
themselves, but they have also declared that NJ
new sovereignty within the sphere of their inlu
ence shall have it, and no new soil shall be work.
ed by it, although the inhabitants shall have car
ried slaves, along with the other members of thei