Yale University Library
39002003987238

E577 S69 (LC)

<? .,.'
y'-"'-

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

REPORT

THE ADDRESS

POETlOiV OP THE MEMBERS

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA.

rUINTKK HY OUDKl! OF THE CON VKXTIOX-

t'llAULKSTUN :
i.v.v.Nf- ii Cdii^wKi.i, ri;iNii.i!- no thk co.nvi..\ i iii.\.
.Nu. u JUrowl uuil 108 Kiut liny Btreoti.
1860.

as77

REPOET,
By Mr. De Saussure,
Of the. Committee on the Address to ihe People of ihe Southern
Siate.s, ON
THE ADDRESS OF A PORTION OF THE MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA.
The Committee on tlie Address to the Southern States,
to whom was referred the Address of a portion of the
members of the General Assembly of Georgia to the peo
ple of South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida,
in Convention assembled, urging that no final separate
State action shall be taken upon the question of secession
from the Union, until a general Convention of the South
ern States can be had, respectfully report. That the
Address was not received until just before the Ordinance
of Secession was put upon its passage, and tlie withdrawal
of South Carolina from the UnioTi has now been ordained.
Nevertheless, the high rcsi)cct entertained by this Conven
tion for the meml)er8 of the Legislature of our sister State
of Georgia, from whom this Address emanated, impels the
Convention briefly to state the causes which induced the
passage of the Ordinance.
South Caroliua did not desire to tiike the lead in seces
sion, but her Legislature being in session fur the purpose
of a|)pointing Presidential Electors, firet felt the blow

inflicted by the election of an enemy to Southern institu
tions, elected by Abolition States upon Abolition issues.
She felt that her safety was imperilled ; that duty to her
self demanded prompt action as the only means of meeting
the impending danger, and she called this Convention to
take the proper steps to save the Commonwealth.
The long-continued violations, by the Federal authority,
of the constitutional compact between the States, produced,
years ago, earnest and repeated remonstrances and warn
ings, not only from South Carolina, but most of the South
ern States. These remonstrances were unheeded, until, at
length, this State was driven to take vigorous measures for
redress. "VYlien it was found she would no longer submit,
a compromise was offered and accepted. How long its
terms were observed, let the records of the country attest.
The threatened storm being averted, the bad faith of our
Northern associates speedily displayed itself in renewed
eftbrts to plunder the South.
When a successful war brought us accessions of territory,
these were grasped by our unscrupulous allies, and monop
olized, to the entire exclusion of Southern men with their
property. They have taken possession of nearly all the Territories,
and insolently proclaimed that there should be no more
slave States.
They have waged, for a long series of years, an unceas
ing warfare against the institution of domestic slavery
established in the Southern States, with an avowed inten
tion to undermine, circumscribe and utterly overthrow it.
And this, notwithstanding that the existence as well as
lawfulness of slavery were recognized by them in the
Articles of Union.

They have taught their people to believe that slaverv is
a sin and a curse, and that they are responsible, if it is
suffered longer to exist.
They have generated in the whole Northern mind a
hatred against Southern institutions and Southern men.
They proclaimed that an irrepressible conflict existed
between the systems of Xorthern and Southern labor, and
that one or the other must 2:0 down ; and at length defi-
antly and exultingly declared that the battle was won.
The fruits of this nefarious warfare were at length dis
played in the armed invasion of one of the States by some
of their infatuated dupes, and by conflagrations and poison
ings in other States. The orderly and contented slave pop
ulation ofthe South at length became agitated and restless.
A feverish feeling ]icrvaded the Southern mind, and for the
first time a sense of insecurity began to be felt, the neces
sary result of these diabolical machinations.
And these injuries were inflicted, not by a public enemy,
but by citizens of States bound to us by a solemn compact,
the avowed object of which was to insure domestic tran
quility. As citizens of the United States, and under cover of their
Constitutional privilege, they had access to our homes, and
there endeavored to diffuse their deadly poison. This they
had been taught to regard as a duty.
The ]>eace, s.afety, and honor of South Carolina required
imperatively that she should no longer continue in alliance
with a people thus faithless to their Constitutional obliga
tions. From men whom no treaty could bind, she held it idle to
aak for additional guaranties, and resolved, with unparal
leled unanimity, to separate herself from them.

Some of the members of the Georgia Legislature have
urged that final State action be deferred until a meeting of
the Southern States can be had, to confer together for our
common safety ; but simultaneously we have received from
Alabama, Mississippi, and from Georgia, communications
urging immediate and final action as indispensible to the
safety of the entire South. These communications are
from sources entitled to our utmost respect.
If a conference of the Southern States is had, it can have
but two objects : one to patch up a hollow truce with anti-
slavery, which denounces our Institution as a crime, and
which will hold all the power of the Government in all its
departments in all time to come ; the other to concert mea
sures for final separation, and for the formation of a South
ern Confederac}'.
South Carolina has ordained her separation from the
Federal Union. This she has done under a high sense of
the responsibilities which attach to her, and her relations
to her Southern sister States. Having weighed the con
sequences, she has resolved to go out of the Union alone,
sooner than submit to the open as well as secret warfare
carried on against her peace and safety. The other object
of a Southern Conference— the formation of a Southern
Confederacy, she anxiously desires, and most cordially in
vites. The Committee submit the following resolution :
Resoked, That a copy of this report be transmitted by
the President to the Honorable John Billups, President of
a meeting of a portion of the members of the General
Assembly of Georgia.
W. F. De SAUSSURE,
On behalf of the Committee.
December 22, 1860.

YALE UNIVERSITY

a39002 003987238b