Alabama
Secession Convention, “Resolutions of Resistance,” January 7, 1861.[1]
Whereas, the only bond of union between
the several States is the Constitution of the United States; and Whereas, that Constitution has been violated,
both by the Government of the United States, and by a majority of the Northern
States, in their separate legislative action, denying to the people of
the Southern States their Constitutional rights;
And
Whereas, a sectional party, known
as the Black Republican Party, has, in the recent election, elected Abraham
Lincoln to the office of President, and Hannibal Hamlin to the office of
Vice-President of these United States, upon the avowed principle that
the Constitution of the United States does not recognise property in slaves,
and that the Government should prevent its extension into the common
Territories of the United States, and that the power of the Government should
be so exercised that slavery in time, should be exterminated:
Resolved, By the
people of Alabama, in Convention assembled That the State of Alabama cannot,
and will not, submit to the Administration of Lincoln and Hamlin as President
and Vice President of the United States, upon the principles referred to in the
preamble.
[1]William R. Smith, The
History and Debates of the Convention of The People of Alabama, Begun and Held
in the City of Montgomery, on the seventh Day of January, 1861,
(Spartanburg: Reprint Company, 1975), 24-25.
EARLIER IN 1860 ALABAMA LEGISLATION PLANS TO SECEDE WITH THE ELECTION OF LINCOLN TO PROTECT SLAVERY*******************************************
In 1860 the Alabama legislature adopted a Joint Resolution as to what would drive them to secession. In was reprinted in the "History and Debates of the Convention of The People of Alabama, Begun and Held in the City of Montgomery," as to given a historical background as to why they were having a secession convention. The following is the Joint Resolution.
The page numbers are from the reprint edition. They were planning to secede to protect slavery.
Page 9
INTRODUCTION--HISTORICAL.
ON the 24th
day of February, 1860, the Alabama Legislature adopted the following Joint
Resolutions, with great unanimity--there being but two dissenting voices:
WHEREAS,
anti-slavery agitation persistently continued in the non-slaveholding States of
this Union, for more than a third of a century, marked at every stage of its
progress by contempt for the obligations of law and the sanctity of compacts,
evincing a deadly hostility to the rights and institutions of the Southern
people, and a settled purpose to effect their overthrow even by the subversion
of the Constitution, and at the hazard of violence and bloodshed; and whereas,
a sectional party calling itself Republican, committed alike by its own acts
and antecedents, and the public avowals and secret machinations of its leaders
to the execution of these atrocious designs, has acquired the ascendency in
nearly every Northern State, and hopes by success in the approaching
Presidential election to seize the Government itself; and whereas, to permit
such seizure 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 whereas, 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;
therefore,
1. Be it
resolved, 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 hereby
required, forthwith to issue his Proclamation, calling upon the qualified
voters of this State to assemble on Monday not more than forty days after the
date of said Proclamation, at the several places of voting in their respective
counties, to 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 requires to be done for their
protection.
2. Be it
further resolved, That said Convention shall assemble at the State Capitol
on the second Monday following said election.
3. Be it
further resolved, That it shall be the duty of the Governor as soon as
possible to issue writs of election to the Sheriffs of the several counties,
commanding them to hold an election on the said Monday so designated by the
Governor, as provided for in these Joint Resolutions, for the choosing of as
many delegates from each county to said Convention as the several counties
shall be entitled to members in the House of Representatives of the General
Assembly; and said election shall be held at the usual places of voting in the
respective counties, and the polls shall be opened under the rules and
regulations now governing the election of members to the General Assembly of
this State, and said election shall be governed in all respects by the laws
then in existence, regulating the election of members to the House of
Representatives of the General Assembly, and the persons elected thereat as
delegates, shall be returned in like manner, and the pay, both mileage and per
diem, of the delegates to said Convention, and the several officers thereof,
shall be the same as that fixed by law for the members and officers of said
House of Representatives.
4. Be it further resolved, That copies of
the foregoing Preamble and Resolutions be forwarded by the Governor as soon as
possible to our Senators and Representatives in Congress, and to each of the
Governors of our sister States of the South.
The following
Resolutions, adopted at the same session, will serve still further to show the
spirit that animated the Legislature of Alabama:
Joint
Resolutions of the General Assembly of Alabama in response to the Resolutions
of South Carolina.
1st, Be it
resolved, That the State of Alabama, fully concuring with the State of South
Carolina, in affirming the right of any State
Page 11
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.
2d, Be it
further resolved, That in the absence of any preparation for a systematic
co-operation of the Southern States, in resisting the aggressions of their
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.
3d, 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
coöperation 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.
4th, Be it
further resolved, That should a Convention of Deputies from the slave-holding
States assemble at any time before the meeting of the next General
Assembly, for the purposes and under the authority indicated
by the resolutions of the State of South Carolina, the Governor of this State
be, and he is hereby
authorized, to appoint one deputy from each Congressional
District, and two from the State at large, to represent the State of Alabama in
such Convention.
Upon the
election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, the Governor, in pursuance of the
foregoing Resolutions, called a Convention of the People of Alabama, to meet in
the city of Montgomery, on the 7th day of January, 1861. The following
CORRESPONDENCE is worthy of preservation as a part of the history of the times:
[1]William R. Smith, The History and Debates of the Convention of The People of Alabama, Begun and Held in the City of Montgomery, on the seventh Day of January, 1861, (Spartanburg: Reprint Company, 1975), 9-11.
[1]William R. Smith, The History and Debates of the Convention of The People of Alabama, Begun and Held in the City of Montgomery, on the seventh Day of January, 1861, (Spartanburg: Reprint Company, 1975), 9-11.
