EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
Montgomery, Ala., December 21, 1860.
Whereas, the election of Abraham Lincoln,
a Black Republican, to the Presidency of the United States by a
purely sectional vote and by a party whose leading and publicly
avowed object is the destruction of the institution of slavery as
it exists in the slave-holding States; and whereas, the success
of said party and the power which it now has and soon will
acquire greatly endanger the peace, interests, security, and
honor of the slave-holding States, and make it necessary that
prompt and effective measures should be adopted to avoid the
evils which must result from a Republican administration of the
Federal Government, and as the interests and destiny of the
slave-holding States are the same, they must naturally sympathize
with each other, they therefore, so far as may be practicable,
should consult and advise together as to what is best to be done
to protect their mutual interests and honor:
Now, therefore, in consideration of the
premises, I, Andrew B. Moore, Governor of the State of Alabama,
by virtue of the general powers in me vested, do hereby
constitute and appoint Hon. John Gill Shorter, a citizen of said
State, a commissioner to the sovereign State of Georgia, to
consult and advise with His Excellency Governor Joseph E. Brown
and the members of the convention to be assembled in said State,
as to what is best to be done to protect the rights, interests,
and honor of the slave-holding States, and to report the result
of such consultation in time to enable me to communicate the same
to the convention of the State of Alabama to be held on Monday,
the 7th day of January next, if practicable.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set
my hand and caused the great seal of the State to be affixed in
the city of Montgomery this 21st day of December, A.D. 1860.
A. B. MOORE.
MILLEDGEVILLE, GA., January 3, 1861.
His Excellency Governor JOSEPH E. BROWN,
Governor of the State of Georgia :
SIR: I beg leave to hand you herewith a commission
from His Excellency Andrew B. Moore, Governor of the sovereign
State of Alabama, and attested by the great seal of the State,
under date of December 21, 1860, by which I have the honor to be
constituted and appointed a commissioner to the sovereign State
of Georgia, with authority to consult and advise with Your
Excellency as to what is best to be done to protect the rights,
interests, and honor of the slave-holding States. No duty more
agreeable to my feelings could have been laid upon me at this
trying hour in the history of our country than that of a delegate
from Alabama, the beloved State of my adoption, to Georgia, the
beloved and honored State of my nativity. The unnatural warfare
which, in violation of the Federal compact and for a long series
of years, has been unceasingly waged by the anti-slavery States
upon the institutions, rights, and domestic tranquillity of the
slave-holding States, has finally culminated in the election of
an open and avowed enemy to our section of the Union; and the
great and powerful party who have produced this result calmly
awaits the 4th day of March next, when, under the forms of the
Constitution and the laws, they will usurp the machinery of the
Federal Government and madly attempt to rule, if not to
subjugate, and ruin the South. In anticipation of such a
contingency and in advance of any of her sister States, the
General Assembly of Alabama on the 24th day of February, 1860,
solemnly declared that---
To permit a seizure of the Federal
Government by those whose unmistakable aim is to pervert its
whole machinery to the destruction of a portion of its
members would be an act of suicidal folly and madness almost
without a parallel in history; and that the General Assembly
of Alabama, representing a people loyally devoted to the
Union of the Constitution, but scorning the Union which
fanaticism would erect upon its ruins, deem it their solemn
duty to provide in advance the means by which they may escape
such peril and dishonor, and devise new securities for
perpetuating the blessings of liberty to themselves and their
posterity.
In stern pursuance of this purpose the General
Assembly adopted, among others, the following resolution:
That upon the happening of the
contingency contemplated in the foregoing preamble, namely,
the election of a President advocating the principles and
action of the party in the Northern States calling itself the
Republican party, it shall be the duty of the Governor, and
he is required forthwith, to issue his proclamation calling
upon the qualified voters of this State to assemble on a
Monday not more than forty days after the date of said
proclamation, at the usual places of voting in their
respective counties, and elect delegates to a convention of
the State, to consider, determine, and do whatever, in the
opinion of said convention, the rights, interests, and honor
of the State of Alabama require to be done for their
protection.
And the same General Assembly, on the 25th day of
February, 1860, in response to resolutions received from the
State of South Carolina, inviting a conference of the Southern
States, adopted these additional resolutions:
1. Resolved, That the State of
Alabama, fully concurring with the State of South Carolina in
affirming the right of any State to secede from the
confederacy whenever, in her own judgment, such a step is
demanded by the honor, interests, and safety of her people,
is not unmindful of the fact that the assaults upon the
institution of slavery and upon the rights and equality of
the Southern States, unceasingly continued with increasing
violence and in new and more alarming forms, may constrain
her to a reluctant but early exercise of that invaluable
right.
2. Be it further resolved, That in the absence of any
preparation for a systematic cooperation of the Southern
States in resisting the aggressions of her enemies, Alabama,
acting for herself, has solemnly declared that under no
circumstances will she submit to the foul domination of a
sectional Northern party; has provided for the call of a
convention in the event of the triumph of such a faction in
the approaching Presidential election, and, to maintain the
position thus deliberately assumed, has appropriated the sum
of $200,000 for the military contingencies which such a
course may involve.
3. Be it further resolved, That the State of Alabama, having
endeavored to prepare for the exigencies of the future, has
not deemed it necessary to propose a meeting of deputies from
the slave-holding States, but, anxiously desiring their
co-operation in a struggle which perils all they hold most
dear, hereby pledges herself to a cordial participation in
any and every effort which, in her judgment, will protect the
common safety, advance the common interest, and serve the
common cause.
In obedience to the instructions of the General
Assembly, and in accordance with his own loyal heart and manly
purpose, His Excellency Andrew B. Moore, Governor of Alabama,
ordered an election of delegates by the people on the 24th day of
December last. These delegates, 100 in number, will assemble in
convention at Montgomery on Monday next, the 7th instant, and
there and then will speak the sovereign voice of Alabama. There
may be found an honest difference of opinion and judgment as to
the time and mode of secession from the Federal Union, whether
the State shall move at once, for herself and by herself, or
await the action and co-operation of Georgia and adjoining sister
States who have with her a common interest, but that the
convention will fully maintain the high and patriotic resolves of
the General Assembly, and thus proudly vindicate the rights and
honor of Alabama, I do not for a moment entertain the shadow of a
doubt. Events now transpiring must, at an early date, unite all
loyal sons of the South in the defense of the South. We should
make haste to be ready for the conflict which is well nigh upon
us. "Delay is dangerous; hesitation, weakness; opposition,
treason." We honor the gallant State of South Carolina,
which accidental and fortuitous circumstances have placed in
front of the battle, and Alabama will stand by and make common
cause with her and every other State which shall assert her
independence of an abolitionized Government. Alabama sends
greetings to her mother, glorious old Georgia, the Empire State
of the South, one of the immortal thirteen which suffered and
endured and triumphed in the Revolution of 1776, and Alabama
invokes her counsel and advice, her encouragement and
co-operation. Having similar institutions, kindred sympathies,
and honor alike imperiled, will not Georgia unite with Alabama
and sister States in throwing off the insolent despotism of the
North, and in the establishment of a Southern confederacy, a
government of homogeneous people, which shall endure through all
coming time, the proudest and grandest monument on the face of
the earth? I shall proceed hence to the capital of Alabama to
report the result of my interview with Your Excellency to the
Governor of Alabama in time for him to lay the same before the
convention on Monday next; and I shall feel grateful for the
honor of being made the medium of bearing any communication which
Your Excellency may be pleased to make.
With high consideration, I am, Your Excellency's
obedient servant,
JNO. GILL SHORTER.
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