The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-26

COntinRenCieS pFOVlueu TUT HI JOiHt resolutions having occurred, the Governor of the State, Hon. A. B. Moore, issued his proclamation accordingly, on the 7th day of December, 1860, and also issued to the sheriffs tf the several counties the necessary writs of election, to be held December "A, 1860.
 The convention met at Montgomery on January [, 1861, and on January Il, 1861, 1t adopted an ordinance ito dissolve the union between the State of Alabama and other States united under the compact styled the Constitution of the United States of America.'"
 State Seeded.
 Neither the length of time, whk h propriety marks as the limit to be oc- cupied by me today. nor the occasion which has brought us together, will justify a full discussion of the various causes which the people of Alabama and States alleged in Justification of their withdrawal from the Union and the in- stitution of the government of the Con- federate States of America. I think 1t may be stated. however, without the necessity of argument in justification, that the hastening cause was slavery, then existing in the States forming the Confederate States. In the preamble of the ordinance to dissolve the Union be- tween the State of Alabama and other States united under the compact styled ''The Constitution of the United States of America" 1t was recited that the election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Ham, lin to the offices of President and Vice President was by sectional party avowedly hostile to the domestic institu- tions and to the peace and security of the people of the State of Alabama, preceded by many and dangerous infractions of tine Constitution of the United States by many of the States and people of the Northern States was "a political wrong of so insulting and menacing character as to tustfy the people of the State of Alabama on the adoption of prompt and decided measures for their future peace and security"
 The minority of the committee, who reported the ordinance, dissented from the report, but that dissent was based upon the ground that the ordinance of secession from the United States was an act of such great importance involving consequences so vitally affecting the live3 liberty. and property of the citizens of the seceding State, as well as the States by which 1t was surrounded and with which 1t had been heretofore united. that in their opinion 1t should never be attempted until after the most thorough investiga- ton and discussion. and then only after a full and free ratification at the polls
 by a direct vote of the people. The
 minority, however, reported that repeated infractions of the constitution by the people and States of the Northern section of the Confederacy had been followed
 by the election of sectional candidates. by
 a strictly sectional vote, to the Presi- dency and Vice-Presidency, upon a plat form of principles insulting and menac- ing to the Southern States and that 1t became a free people to watch with jeal- ous vigilance and resist with manly flrmness every attempt to subvert free
 and equal principles upon which our gov ernment was originally founded and ought alone to be maintained They
 recommended that the Southern States be requested to send delegates to meet delegates from this State in convention
 at Nashville, Tenn. February 2. 1861, for
 the purpose of taking into considera- | ton the wrongs of which we had cause | to complain, the appropriate remedy | therefor and the time and manner of it's | application They recommended that the delegates from Alabama be instructed to submit to the general convention the | following basis of settlement of the exist | ing sectional difficulties:
 Ffrst-A faithful execution of the fugi- | tive slave law and a repeal of all State | laws calculated to impair its efficiency. | Second-A more stringent and explicit provision for the surrender of criminals
 charged with offenses against the laws | of one State and escaping into another. Third-A guaranty that slavery shall | not be abolished in the District of Columbia, or any other place over which | Congress has exclusive Jurisdiction Fourth-A guaranty that the inter- | State slave trade shall not be interferej
 with.
 | Fifth-A protection to slavery in the ter
 ritories. and a guaranty that when they ask for admission as States they shall be admitted into the Union with or without
 slavery as their constitutions may pre-. 1 scribe.
 l Sixth-The right of transit through free | States with slave property.
 l Seventh-The foregoing clauses to be
 irrepealable by amendments to the con | stitution.
 | It will be seen that both the majority l and minority reports of the committed | of the convention base their recommenda- | tions upon 'infractions" of the constitli- l ton of the United States by the people land States of the Northern section The | divergence of opinion was in the method | of obtaining relief.
 | In addition to this action of the Genera Assembly in 1860 and of the convention oi
 the people in 1861, the General Assembly | called in special session in January. 1861 | adopted a joint resolution unanimously | declaring that the convention of the peo'