G O VEEN GIGS MESSAGE,
TRANSMITTED TO THE
LEGISLATURE OF FLORIDA,
NOVEMBER 26, 1860.
GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE.
Executive Department, ).
Tallahassee, November 26th, 1860. f •
Gentlemen of the Senate a/nd House of Representatives:
The crisis, long expected by men of observation and re¬
flection, has at length come. A series of aggressions and
insults, commencing forty years ago, by the Northern States
against the Southern, and increasing in audacity as time
rolled 011 and the South forbore, has been pushed to a point
at which further forbearance of the South would justify the
allegation that we "are afraid to resist."
The election of Lincoln and Hamlin to the two highest
offices in the confederacy, viewed in connection with the
circumstances that led to the result, and the determination
of Northern fanatics to urge their mad schemes, regardless
of the welfare and the security of the Southern people,
ought to extinguish any desire of the latter to prolong their
connection with those who show such an utter disregard of
covenanted rights and of plighted faith.
I will not insult' your intelligence or trespass on your pa¬
tience by recounting the aggressions already perpetrated, or
by referring to those that must follow our submission. . For
myself, in full view of the responsibility of my position, I
most decidedly declare that in my opinion the only hope the
Southern States have for domestic peace and safety, or for
future respectability and prosperity, is dependent on their
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action now,, and tliat the proper action is—Secession from
our faithless, perjured confederates.
But some-Southern men, it is said, object to secession un¬
til some overt act of unconstitutional power shall' have been
committed by the General Government; that we. ought not
'to secede until the President .and Congress unite in passing
an act unequivocally hostile to our institutions and fraught
with immediate danger to our rights of property and to ojir
domestic safety. My countrymen! if we wait for such an
overt act, our fate will be that of the white inhabitants of
St. Domingo. ' ' '
But why wait for this overt act of the General Govern¬
ment ? "What is that Government ? It is but the trustee,
the common agent of all the States, appointed by them to
manage their affairs according to a written constitution or
power of attorney. Should the sovereign States, then—the
principals and the partners in the association—for a moment
tolerate the idea that their action must be graduated by tbe
will of their agents? The idea is preposterous.
Let it he constantly had in mind, this essential difference
between the relation in which the thirteen colonies stood to
the British empire and its government and that relation
which the States of this Union occupy towards the federal
power and authority. The colonies were fractional parts of
one consolidated State. They had no separate organization
or powers, except such as they derived from the King and
Parliament of Great Britain, consequently they stood in the
same relation to that government that the counties of Flori¬
da do to the State government. But how different is our
condition! Our general government was created by sepa¬
rate, independent sovereign States. It was established for
certain specified purposes, defme'd by a constitution, which
constitution is a compact between the sovereign States who
created it and all who have become parties to it. The col¬
onists were subjects of the British crown. This they often
acknowledged by petitioning that power for a removal of
their grievances. "When, therefore, they resisted the author-
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ity of tlieir confessed sovereign, they placed themselves in a
state of rebellion, the purpose of which was revolution.
They knew this, yet did they falter even with the penalty of
treason staring them in the face % bio—they met in conven¬
tions—'they declared " that governments derived their just
powers from the consent of the governed—that they were
instituted to protect the people in the enjoyment of life, lib¬
erty and the pursuit of happiness, and that whenever any
form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is.
the right of the people to alter or abolish it." . Had they
failed to maintain their asserted rights by the sword, they
would have been amenable to the penalties denounced
against treason. But they succeeded in establishing their
independence. After this consummation of their noble
struggle, the people of the several colonies, then acknow¬
ledged to be free and independent States, formed a new
Confederation by framing and adopting, voluntarily, and
each one for itself, that Constitution which is so flagitiously
violated by many of the parties to the compact of fraternity.
The preamble to this Constitution recites the purposes for
which it was ordained, among which are these : " To estab¬
lish justice, insure domestic tranquility," Ac, Has it effected
these- objects % Let the question be answered by the forty
years' war waged by the bforthern States upon the just rights
of the Southern—by the statute books of tl.o;e States, dis¬
graced wTith laws expressly designed to defraud us of our
property, and at the same time insulting us with threats of
fine and imprisonment if we seek to reclaim our property
even through the operation of that Constitution which they
were sworn to support. Let it be answered by the maeliina-
tions'of" fanatics, and of cold-blooded knaves, to destroy our
" domestic tranquility," and this, not only by secret sedition
and insurrection, but also by avowed efforts, now nearly
consummated, to pervert all the powers of a common gov¬
ernment to the perpetration of their fiendish crimes.
Such, fellow-citizens, is a meagre outline only of the pic¬
tures of wrong and outrage that we are expected to endure
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unresistingly. But shall we endure it? Heaven forbid!
Forbid it tlie memory and tlie example of those noble pat¬
riots who pledged their "lives, their fortunes and their sacred
honor " to maintain their liberty and their rights. Shall we,
the descendants of such sires, relinquish the rich inheritance
thus acquired? Must we jeopard our present security and
our future existence as a free people, by stopping now to re¬
argue the abstract question of the right of secession? I
have already adverted to the important difference between
the political responsibilities of the people of the thirteen old
colonies and those which attach to the people of the United
States. The former being subjects, could not withdraw from
or forcibly oppose their government without an act of rebel¬
lion, for although they declared it their rigid to change their
government, they were fully aware that the right depended
upon their success in maintaining it. Not so with regard to
the people of these States. They are not subjects but citizens
•—citizens, owing their first and highest allegiance to the re¬
spective sovereign States.. While the' States remain in the
Union, the citizens may commit an act of rebellion against
their particular States, or against the United States. But
the moment that a State, in her sovereign capacity, declares
a dissolution of the Federal ties, her citizens are absolved
from all responsibility to the Federal Government, and the
State released from all conventional obligations to her former
associates. ' And more than this—a palpable infraction by
one or more of the other States of the covenanted rights of
one or more of the others, releases the latter from their obli¬
gations to the compact. And of such infractions and. " the
mode and measure of redress," each State has the right to
judge for itself. This is a right inherent in States and can
only be alienated by their voluntary act. In the Constitu¬
tion of the United States, there is no relinquishment of this
right—110 transfer of it to any other power, tribunal or Judge.
The right consequently remains to the State, perfect and un¬
impaired, and it were puerile to dispute about the name of
.the thing when the time has come for proving its efficacy.
Entertaining these views, I most earnestly recommend a
call of a Convention of the people of the State, at an early day,
to take snch action as in their judgment may he necessary to
protect and preserve the rights, honor and safety of the peo¬
ple of Florida. I would further recommend a revision of the
Militia laws, with a view to a more effective organization of
the Military, and an appropriation of one hundred thousand
dollars as a military fund for the ensuing year, to he expend¬
ed ar fast as the public necessities may require.
Yery respectfully,
M. S. PERRY.