Year: 1861

ecution of the laws of the United States,
and that. standing upon the guarantees Of
the Constitution in the Union, Southern
rights might be triumphantly maintained,
under the protection and safeguards which
| the constitution affords.


Because in secession see no remedy for
the actual and present evils complained of,
and because the prospective evils depicted SO
gloomily may never come and if they
should, the inalienable right to resist tyran-
ny might then be exercised as we'll and %
successfully as now.


Because l see no certainty that the sece-
ding States will ever be ccnfederated again
none that The border States will secede at
all and if they should. sec no reliable
ground for believing that they would incor-
porate themselves with the gulf or cotton
States in new government. I see no sure
ty. either. that Texas would unite with
them.


Because the gulf or cotton States alone,
were they to unite in a separate confederacy
would be without the elements of power in
dispenssblc in the formation of . govern
ment to take q respectable rank among the
nations of the earth. Because believe that
peaceable secession is q hight unknown to
the constitution Of the United States that
1t Is dangerous and mischievous principle
in the structure of any government, and
when carried into the formation of the con-
templated confederacy of the gulf States,
will render it powerless for good and COM
plete its incapacity to afford to the people
permanent security for their lives. liberties
and property.


Because it is my solemn. deliberate con-
viction that the distraction of the Southern
States by separate secession will defeat the
purposes it is intended to accomplish, and
that its certain results will be to impair in
stead OF strengthening the security OF South
ern institutions.


Because the proper status of Louisiana is
with the border States with which nature
has connected her by the majestic river
which flows through her limits and be-
cause an alliance in q weak government
with the Gulf States east Of her, is unnatu-
raj and antagonistic to her obvious interests
and destiny.


Because by separate secession the State
relinquishes all its rights within the govern
ment, 1t surrenders its equal rights to the
common territories, to the vast public do
main of the United States and the public
property of every kind belonging to the ma
ton. And for this reason oppose seces-
sion as being emphatically submission.


Because secession may bring anarchy and
war, as 1t will assuredly bring ruinous sx-
actions upon property in the form of direct
taxation. withering blight upon the pros
perity of the State, and fatal prostration
of all its great interests.


Because the act dissolving the ties which
connect Louisiana with the federal Union is
a revolutionary act, that this convention is
OF itself, without legitimate power to per-
form. Convened without authority from
the people Of the State, and refusing to sub
init its action to them for their sanction in
the grave and vital act of changing their
government, this convention violates the
great fundamental principle of American
government that the will of the people is
supreme.


JAMES G. TALIArgRRo.


Delegate from the parish of Catahoula