The Secession Commissioners

Brief chronology of the secession crisis.
Suggestions for further reading.
Links to Related Sites of Interest

In the immediate wake of Lincoln's election, several Southern governors appointed "commissioners" to other states with the avowed purpose of consulting with those states on the appropriate course of action. Many of these commissioners were natives of the state to which they were appointed, and many of them were allowed to speak to the state legislature or state convention.

The activities of these "secession commissioners" are detailed in a recent book by Charles Dew, titled Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War (University of Virginia Press), and an article on the same subject in North & South magazine (vol. 4, no. 4 (2001)).This section of the web site contains those speeches or letters of the commissioners that I was able to find, either in Dew's work or in the sources he cites. Series IV of the Official Records contains a lot of material on the Alabama commissioners.

The Alabama Commissioners:

• Gov. Moore's appointment of the commissioners
• Letter from J.L.M. Curry to Gov. Hicks of Maryland
• Letter from Stephen Hale of Alabama to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky
  • Gov. Magoffin's reply
• Letter from John G. Shorter of Alabama to Gov. Joe Brown of Georgia
  • Gov. Brown's reply
• Letter from Isham Garrott and Robert H. Smith of Alabama to the Governor and legislature of North Carolina
• Report of Alabama's Commissioner to Louisiana

Speeches to Virginia:

• Speech of Fulton Anderson of Mississippi to the Virginia Secession Convention
• Speech of Henry Benning of Georgia to the Virginia Secession Convention
• Speech of John Preston of South Carolina to the Virginia Secession Convention
• Speech of Alexander Stephens of Georgia to the Virginia Secession Convention

Other Commissioners:

• Address of William L. Harris of Mississippi to the Georgia General Assembly
• Letter of Jacob Thompson of Mississippi to the Governor of North Carolina
• Address of John McQueen of South Carolina to the Texas Secession Convention
• Address of George Williamson of Louisiana to the Texas Secession Convention
• Address of John Sanford of Georgia to the Texas Secession Convention