Year: 1860

u


sentdtiUes:


IT is with deep regret that am constrained
to forego the usual congratulations for peace


prosperity, and bright hopes for the future which


have formed SO marked feature of Executiu


communications to the Legislative department.
federacy. In performances Of what deemed an
imperative duty, have convened you in extra
ordinary session-to take into consideration the
gravest and most solemn question that ever en-
gagged the attention Of any Legislative body on
this contin ,nt One involving more human hap
piness or human misery than any political ques
ton of the age in which we live; on the solu
ton of which hangs the destiny for veal or woe
not only Of this generation and this age, but Of
all the generations which come after us for an
indefinite term of centuries, the end of which
no prophet can foretell.


The existence or abolition Of African slavery


in the Southern States is now up for final settle
mcnt before the tribunal which has exclusive
jurisdcton-the people Of the Southern States,
where it exists. 1t is true, that the forms of a
trial have been had, before the people OF the
non-slaveholding States. The institutions Of
the South have been dragged before that tribu-
nal in violation of every principle Of the Con-
stitution and of common sense, and tried before
court having no jurisdiction, and jury igno-
rant of the law and the facts and the verdict
thus obtained is, that slavery is sinful and must
be destroyed. We are told that this verdict
will be executed, that the Northern mind will
never rest satisfied until slavery is placed in such
a condition as will insure its ultimate extinction,
and that all the power the Southern States now
have in the final settlement Of this matter, is to
choose whether it shall be peaceable and grad
ual abolition, or speedy and violent These are
the hard terms offered to fifteen States Of this
Confederacy--as if they were conquered and
not co-equal States, rs If the superior numbers
of the Northern States gave them the constitu-
tional right to regulate the domestic affairs of
the Southern States without consulting their
wishes, and against their consent.


Submission to such a rule establishes a des-
potism, under which the dearest rights of the
Southern States arc held at the sufferance Of a
people, ignorant Of their wants, and hostile to
their rights. If they were honest and just,
they are SO utterly ignorant of the capacities and
necessities of the two races which inhabit the
Southern section of this Confederacy, as to rem
der il impossible for them to rule it with sue
cess, or manage it without ruin. It would be
as reasonable to expect the steamship to make a
successful voyage across the Atlantic with crazy
men for engineers, as to hope for prosperous
future for the South under Black Republican
rule. Can the lives, liberty and property of the
people of Mississippi be safely entrusted to the
keeping of that sectional majority which must
hereafter administer the Federal Government +?


think they cannot, for the following reasons !:
They have exhibited low selfshness in seizing
all the territories which are the common proper
ty of all the States. They have deliberately
attempted and have succeeded in educating a
generation to hate the South They have sworn
to support the Federal Constitution, and delb-
erately passed laws with the palpabie intent to
violate one of the plainest provisions Of that
compact They have sent large sums of money
to Congress for the purposes of bribing the
members of that body to pass laws to advance
their private interests They have attempted to
degrade us in the estimation of other nations,
by denouncing us as barbarians pirates and
robbers unfit associates for christian or civilized
men, They have excited our slaves to insur-
rection, advised them to burn our property, muir
der our people, and have furnished them with
arms and ammunition to aid them in their bloody
work. They have murdered Southern men in
the lawful pursuit of their fugitive slaves, and
failed to punish their citizens for these fragrant
violations Of the laws Of God and man. They
have furnished money and arms for the invasion
Of a. slaveholding State, and when the punish
ment awarded to treason and murder overlook
the invaders they threatened the dastardly re
venge of midnight incendiaries, tolled bells in
honor of traitors and murderers, and rewarded
the family of the chief traitor, as never was re-
wardcd that of any soldier who fell in defence
Of the country, and held him up as an example
of heroic devotion to a just and glorious cause.
Their press, pulpit lccture-room and forum,
teen daily and nightly with exhortations to their
people to press forward this war on our institu-
tons even to the drenching Of Southern fields
with the blood of her citizens In view Of all
this long catalogue of insults and injuries, in
view of the fact that this hostile section must
continue to increase in power, feel that | am
warranted in saying that the Northern people
have forfeited the confidence Of the people Of
Mississippi and that the lives, liberty and prop
erty Of ourselves and our children after us,
ought not to be entrusted to rulers, elected by
such people The Judgment Of the people Of
all tho Southern States bears me out in this con-
clusion; for the candidate recently elected to
the Presidency gets not one electoral vote in all
the fifteen slave States. While our Northern
assailants had only the power Of the press,
mobs, and State Governments to aid them in
these aggressions, il was the opinion Of many Of
our wisest and best men that we might still de-
fend ourselves in the Union, by the power Of our
State Governments with the aid Of the Federal
Government But when in recent Presiden-
tial election large majority have decreed that
the Federal Government with all its immense
powers. on which we relied for protection, shall
hereafter be administered by the same class Of
men who have been guilty. Of all these acts Of