The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection
with the Government of the United States of America, present to
their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the
separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious
causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States
with reference to the subject of African slavery. They have
endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and
tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express
constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and
by the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to
deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the
Republic. This hostile policy of our confederates has been pursued
with every circumstance of aggravation which could arouse the
passions and excite the hatred of our people, and has placed the two
sections of the Union for many years past in the condition of
virtual civil war. Our people, still attached to the Union from
habit and national traditions, and averse to change, hoped that
time, reason, and argument would bring, if not redress, at least
exemption from further insults, injuries, and dangers. Recent events
have fully dissipated all such hopes and demonstrated the necessity
of separation. Our Northern confederates, after a full and calm
hearing of all the facts, after a fair warning of our purpose not to
submit to the rule of the authors of all these wrongs and injuries,
have by a large majority committed the Government of the United
States into their hands. The people of Georgia, after an equally
full and fair and deliberate hearing of the case, have declared with
equal firmness that they shall not rule over them. A brief history
of the rise, progress, and policy of anti-slavery and the political
organization into whose hands the administration of the Federal
Government has been committed will fully justify the pronounced
verdict of the people of Georgia. The party of Lincoln, called the
Republican party, under its present name and organization, is of
recent origin. It is admitted to be an anti-slavery party. While it
attracts to itself by its creed the scattered advocates of exploded
political heresies, of condemned theories in political economy, the
advocates of commercial restrictions, of protection, of special
privileges, of waste and corruption in the administration of
Government, anti-slavery is its mission and its purpose. By
anti-slavery it is made a power in the state. The question of
slavery was the great difficulty in the way of the formation of the
Constitution. While the subordination and the political and social
inequality of the African race was fully conceded by all, it was
plainly apparent that slavery would soon disappear from what are now
the non-slave-holding States of the original thirteen. The
opposition to slavery was then, as now, general in those States and
the Constitution was made with direct reference to that fact. But a
distinct abolition party was not formed in the United States for
more than half a century after the Government went into operation.
The main reason was that the North, even if united, could not
control both branches of the Legislature during any portion of that
time. Therefore such an organization must have resulted either in
utter failure or in the total overthrow of the Government. The
material prosperity of the North was greatly dependent on the
Federal Government; that of the the South not at all. In the first
years of the Republic the navigating, commercial, and manufacturing
interests of the North began to seek profit and aggrandizement at
the expense of the agricultural interests. Even the owners of
fishing smacks sought and obtained bounties for pursuing their own
business (which yet continue), and $500,000 is now paid them
annually out of the Treasury. The navigating interests begged for
protection against foreign shipbuilders and against competition in
the coasting trade. Congress granted both requests, and by
prohibitory acts gave an absolute monopoly of this business to each
of their interests, which they enjoy without diminution to this day.
Not content with these great and unjust advantages, they have sought
to throw the legitimate burden of their business as much as possible
upon the public; they have succeeded in throwing the cost of
light-houses, buoys, and the maintenance of their seamen upon the
Treasury, and the Government now pays above $2,000,000 annually for
the support of these objects. Theses interests, in connection with
the commercial and manufacturing classes, have also succeeded, by
means of subventions to mail steamers and the reduction in postage,
in relieving their business from the payment of about $7,000,000
annually, throwing it upon the public Treasury under the name of
postal deficiency. The manufacturing interests entered into the same
struggle early, and has clamored steadily for Government bounties
and special favors. This interest was confined mainly to the Eastern
and Middle non-slave-holding States. Wielding these great States it
held great power and influence, and its demands were in full
proportion to its power. The manufacturers and miners wisely based
their demands upon special facts and reasons rather than upon
general principles, and thereby mollified much of the opposition of
the opposing interest. They pleaded in their favor the infancy of
their business in this country, the scarcity of labor and capital,
the hostile legislation of other countries toward them, the great
necessity of their fabrics in the time of war, and the necessity of
high duties to pay the debt incurred in our war for independence.
These reasons prevailed, and they received for many years enormous
bounties by the general acquiescence of the whole country.
But when these reasons ceased they were no less clamorous for
Government protection, but their clamors were less heeded-- the
country had put the principle of protection upon trial and condemned
it. After having enjoyed protection to the extent of from 15 to 200
per cent. upon their entire business for above thirty years, the act
of 1846 was passed. It avoided sudden change, but the principle was
settled, and free trade, low duties, and economy in public
expenditures was the verdict of the American people. The South and
the Northwestern States sustained this policy. There was but small
hope of its reversal; upon the direct issue, none at all.
All these classes saw this and felt it and cast about for new
allies. The anti-slavery sentiment of the North offered the best
chance for success. An anti-slavery party must necessarily look to
the North alone for support, but a united North was now strong
enough to control the Government in all of its departments, and a
sectional party was therefore determined upon. Time and issues upon
slavery were necessary to its completion and final triumph. The
feeling of anti-slavery, which it was well known was very general
among the people of the North, had been long dormant or passive; it
needed only a question to arouse it into aggressive activity. This
question was before us. We had acquired a large territory by
successful war with Mexico; Congress had to govern it; how, in
relation to slavery, was the question then demanding solution. This
state of facts gave form and shape to the anti-slavery sentiment
throughout the North and the conflict began. Northern anti-slavery
men of all parties asserted the right to exclude slavery from the
territory by Congressional legislation and demanded the prompt and
efficient exercise of this power to that end. This insulting and
unconstitutional demand was met with great moderation and firmness
by the South. We had shed our blood and paid our money for its
acquisition; we demanded a division of it on the line of the
Missouri restriction or an equal participation in the whole of it.
These propositions were refused, the agitation became general, and
the public danger was great. The case of the South was impregnable.
The price of the acquisition was the blood and treasure of both
sections-- of all, and, therefore, it belonged to all upon the
principles of equity and justice.
The Constitution delegated no power to Congress to excluded either
party from its free enjoyment; therefore our right was good under
the Constitution. Our rights were further fortified by the practice
of the Government from the beginning. Slavery was forbidden in the
country northwest of the Ohio River by what is called the ordinance
of 1787. That ordinance was adopted under the old confederation and
by the assent of Virginia, who owned and ceded the country, and
therefore this case must stand on its own special circumstances. The
Government of the United States claimed territory by virtue of the
treaty of 1783 with Great Britain, acquired territory by cession
from Georgia and North Carolina, by treaty from France, and by
treaty from Spain. These acquisitions largely exceeded the original
limits of the Republic. In all of these acquisitions the policy of
the Government was uniform. It opened them to the settlement of all
the citizens of all the States of the Union. They emigrated thither
with their property of every kind (including slaves). All were
equally protected by public authority in their persons and property
until the inhabitants became sufficiently numerous and otherwise
capable of bearing the burdens and performing the duties of
self-government, when they were admitted into the Union upon equal
terms with the other States, with whatever republican constitution
they might adopt for themselves.
Under this equally just and beneficent policy law and order,
stability and progress, peace and prosperity marked every step of
the progress of these new communities until they entered as great
and prosperous commonwealths into the sisterhood of American States.
In 1820 the North endeavored to overturn this wise and successful
policy and demanded that the State of Missouri should not be
admitted into the Union unless she first prohibited slavery within
her limits by her constitution. After a bitter and protracted
struggle the North was defeated in her special object, but her
policy and position led to the adoption of a section in the law for
the admission of Missouri, prohibiting slavery in all that portion
of the territory acquired from France lying North of 36 [degrees] 30
[minutes] north latitude and outside of Missouri. The venerable
Madison at the time of its adoption declared it unconstitutional.
Mr. Jefferson condemned the restriction and foresaw its consequences
and predicted that it would result in the dissolution of the Union.
His prediction is now history. The North demanded the application of
the principle of prohibition of slavery to all of the territory
acquired from Mexico and all other parts of the public domain then
and in all future time. It was the announcement of her purpose to
appropriate to herself all the public domain then owned and
thereafter to be acquired by the United States. The claim itself was
less arrogant and insulting than the reason with which she supported
it. That reason was her fixed purpose to limit, restrain, and
finally abolish slavery in the States where it exists. The South
with great unanimity declared her purpose to resist the principle of
prohibition to the last extremity. This particular question, in
connection with a series of questions affecting the same subject,
was finally disposed of by the defeat of prohibitory legislation.
The Presidential election of 1852 resulted in the total overthrow of
the advocates of restriction and their party friends. Immediately
after this result the anti-slavery portion of the defeated party
resolved to unite all the elements in the North opposed to slavery
an to stake their future political fortunes upon their hostility to
slavery everywhere. This is the party two whom the people of the
North have committed the Government. They raised their standard in
1856 and were barely defeated. They entered the Presidential contest
again in 1860 and succeeded.
The prohibition of slavery in the Territories, hostility to it
everywhere, the equality of the black and white races, disregard of
all constitutional guarantees in its favor, were boldly proclaimed
by its leaders and applauded by its followers.
With these principles on their banners and these utterances on their
lips the majority of the people of the North demand that we shall
receive them as our rulers.
The prohibition of slavery in the Territories is the cardinal
principle of this organization.
For forty years this question has been considered and debated in the
halls of Congress, before the people, by the press, and before the
tribunals of justice. The majority of the people of the North in
1860 decided it in their own favor. We refuse to submit to that
judgment, and in vindication of our refusal we offer the
Constitution of our country and point to the total absence of any
express power to exclude us. We offer the practice of our Government
for the first thirty years of its existence in complete refutation
of the position that any such power is either necessary or proper to
the execution of any other power in relation to the Territories. We
offer the judgment of a large minority of the people of the North,
amounting to more than one-third, who united with the unanimous
voice of the South against this usurpation; and, finally, we offer
the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest
judicial tribunal of our country, in our favor. This evidence ought
to be conclusive that we have never surrendered this right. The
conduct of our adversaries admonishes us that if we had surrendered
it, it is time to resume it.
The faithless conduct of our adversaries is not confined to such
acts as might aggrandize themselves or their section of the Union.
They are content if they can only injure us. The Constitution
declares that persons charged with crimes in one State and fleeing
to another shall be delivered up on the demand of the executive
authority of the State from which they may flee, to be tried in the
jurisdiction where the crime was committed. It would appear
difficult to employ language freer from ambiguity, yet for above
twenty years the non-slave-holding States generally have wholly
refused to deliver up to us persons charged with crimes affecting
slave property. Our confederates, with punic faith, shield and give
sanctuary to all criminals who seek to deprive us of this property
or who use it to destroy us. This clause of the Constitution has no
other sanction than their good faith; that is withheld from us; we
are remediless in the Union; out of it we are remitted to the laws
of nations.
A similar provision of the Constitution requires them to surrender
fugitives from labor. This provision and the one last referred to
were our main inducements for confederating with the Northern
States. Without them it is historically true that we would have
rejected the Constitution. In the fourth year of the Republic
Congress passed a law to give full vigor and efficiency to this
important provision. This act depended to a considerable degree upon
the local magistrates in the several States for its efficiency. The
non-slave-holding States generally repealed all laws intended to aid
the execution of that act, and imposed penalties upon those citizens
whose loyalty to the Constitution and their oaths might induce them
to discharge their duty. Congress then passed the act of 1850,
providing for the complete execution of this duty by Federal
officers. This law, which their own bad faith rendered absolutely
indispensible for the protection of constitutional rights, was
instantly met with ferocious revilings and all conceivable modes of
hostility. The Supreme Court unanimously, and their own local courts
with equal unanimity (with the single and temporary exception of the
supreme court of Wisconsin), sustained its constitutionality in all
of its provisions. Yet it stands to-day a dead letter for all
practicable purposes in every non-slave-holding State in the Union.
We have their convenants, we have their oaths to keep and observe
it, but the unfortunate claimant, even accompanied by a Federal
officer with the mandate of the highest judicial authority in his
hands, is everywhere met with fraud, with force, and with
legislative enactments to elude, to resist, and defeat him.
Claimants are murdered with impunity; officers of the law are beaten
by frantic mobs instigated by inflammatory appeals from persons
holding the highest public employment in these States, and supported
by legislation in conflict with the clearest provisions of the
Constitution, and even the ordinary principles of humanity. In
several of our confederate States a citizen cannot travel the
highway with his servant who may voluntarily accompany him, without
being declared by law a felon and being subjected to infamous
punishments. It is difficult to perceive how we could suffer more by
the hostility than by the fraternity of such brethren.
The public law of civilized nations requires every State to restrain
its citizens or subjects from committing acts injurious to the peace
and security of any other State and from attempting to excite
insurrection, or to lessen the security, or to disturb the
tranquillity of their neighbors, and our Constitution wisely gives
Congress the power to punish all offenses against the laws of
nations.
These are sound and just principles which have received the
approbation of just men in all countries and all centuries; but they
are wholly disregarded by the people of the Northern States, and the
Federal Government is impotent to maintain them. For twenty years
past the abolitionists and their allies in the Northern States have
been engaged in constant efforts to subvert our institutions and to
excite insurrection and servile war among us. They have sent
emissaries among us for the accomplishment of these purposes. Some
of these efforts have received the public sanction of a majority of
the leading men of the Republican party in the national councils,
the same men who are now proposed as our rulers. These efforts have
in one instance led to the actual invasion of one of the
slave-holding States, and those of the murderers and incendiaries
who escaped public justice by flight have found fraternal protection
among our Northern confederates.
These are the same men who say the Union shall be preserved.
Such are the opinions and such are the practices of the Republican
party, who have been called by their own votes to administer the
Federal Government under the Constitution of the United States. We
know their treachery; we know the shallow pretenses under which they
daily disregard its plainest obligations. If we submit to them it
will be our fault and not theirs. The people of Georgia have ever
been willing to stand by this bargain, this contract; they have
never sought to evade any of its obligations; they have never
hitherto sought to establish any new government; they have struggled
to maintain the ancient right of themselves and the human race
through and by that Constitution. But they know the value of
parchment rights in treacherous hands, and therefore they refuse to
commit their own to the rulers whom the North offers us. Why?
Because by their declared principles and policy they have outlawed
$3,000,000,000 of our property in the common territories of the
Union; put it under the ban of the Republic in the States where it
exists and out of the protection of Federal law everywhere; because
they give sanctuary to thieves and incendiaries who assail it to the
whole extent of their power, in spite of their most solemn
obligations and covenants; because their avowed purpose is to
subvert our society and subject us not only to the loss of our
property but the destruction of ourselves, our wives, and our
children, and the desolation of our homes, our altars, and our
firesides. To avoid these evils we resume the powers which our
fathers delegated to the Government of the United States, and
henceforth will seek new safeguards for our liberty, equality,
security, and tranquillity.