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[Ordered 1U,00U eopu'S for the Convention. 
 
 THE ADDRESS. 
 
 Presented by Judgp: ^isbet, Chairmuu of tl]e Committee 
 of 17 appointed to draft Ordinance of Secession. 
 
 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 
 aiiainsr our non-slavi'holding confederate States, with refer- 
 ence to the subject of African slavery. They have endeav- 
 ored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace 
 and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their 
 express constitutional obligations tons in reference to that 
 property, and by the use of their power in the Federal 
 Government, have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoy- 
 ment of the connnon Territories of the Kepublic. This hos- 
 tile policy of our confederates has been pursued with every 
 circumstance of aggravation which could arouse the pas- 
 sions and excite the hatred of our people, and has placed the 
 two sections of the Union, for many years past, in the con- 
 dition 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 farther insults, inju- 
 ries and dangers. Kecent events have fully dissipated all 
 such iiopes, 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, connnitted the 
 Government of.the United States into their hands. The peo- 
 ple of Georgia, after an equally full and fair and deliber- 
 ate hearing of the case, have declared with equal firmness, 
 that the)'' shall not rule over them. A brief history of the 
 rise, progrrss and policy of anti-slavery, and of the polit- 
 ical organization into whose hands the administration of 
 the Federal Government has been committed, will fully jus- 
 tify the pronounced verdict of the people of Georgia. The 
 party of Lincoln, called the Republican j^arty, 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 po- 
 litical hferesies, of condemned theories in political economy, 
 The advocates of commercial restrictions, of protection, of 
 special privileges, of waste and corruption in the adminis- 
 tration of Government ; anti-slavery is its mission and its 
 ])urpose . 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 subordi- 
 nation and the jiolitical and social inequality of the African 
 race were fully conceded bv all, it was plainly apparent 
 that slavery would soon disappear from what are now the non- 
 slaveholdiug 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 tlian 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 Korth was greatly depen- 
 dent on the Federal Government; that of the South not at 
 all. In the first years of the Republic, the navigating, com- 
 mercial and manufacturing interests of the North, began to 
 seek profit and aggrandizement at the expense of the agri- 
 cultural interests. Even the owners of fishing smacks, 
 sought and obtained bounties for pursuing their own busi- 
 ness, which yet continue — and half a million of dollars 
 are now paid them annually out of the Treasury. The nav- 
 igating interests begged for protection against foreign ship 
 builders, and against competition in the coasting trade; 
 Congress granted both requests, and by prohibitoiy acts, 
 gave an absolute monopoly of tliis business to each of 
 their interests, wdiich they enjoy without diniinution to 
 this day. Not content with these great and unjust advan- 
 tages, they have sought to throw the legitimate burthens 
 of their business as much as possible upon the public; 
 they have succeeded in throwing the cost of ligiit-houses, 
 buoys, and the maintenance ol their seamen, upon the 
 Treasury, and the Government now pays above two millions 
 annually for the support of these objects. These interests in 
 connection with the commercial and manufacturing classes, 
 have also succeeded, by means of subventions to mail steam- 
 ers, and the reduction of postage, in relieving their busi- 
 ness from the payment of about seven millions of dollars 
 annually, throwing it upon the public Treasury, under the 
 name of postal deficiency. The manufacturing interest 
 entered into the same struggle early, and has clamored 
 steadily for Government bounties and special favors. This 
 
'4 
 
 interest was confined mainly to the Eastern and Middle nou- 
 slaveliolding States. Wielding these great States, it held 
 great power and influence, and its demands were iu full 
 proportion to its power. Tlie mauutacturers aud miners 
 iciselij based their demands upon special facts aud reasons, 
 rather than upon general principles, and thereby mollified 
 much of the opposition of the opposing interests. Thev 
 pleaded in their favor, the infcincy of their business in this 
 country, the scarcity of labor aud capital, the hostile legis- 
 tion of other countries toward them, the great necessity of 
 their fabrics in 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 enorm- 
 ous bounties by the general acquiescence of the whole 
 country. 
 
 But when these reasons ceased they were no less clamor- 
 ous 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 pro- 
 tectioli to the extent of from fifteen to two hundred per 
 cent, upon their entire business, for above thiity years, the 
 Act of 1S4:() was passed. It avoided sudden change, bur 
 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 re- 
 versal, — 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 
 stromr enough to control the government in all of its de- 
 partments, and a sectional })arty was therefore determined 
 upon. Time, and issues upon slavery, were necessary to 
 its completion and final triumph. The feeling ot anti-sla- 
 very, 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 ac- 
 tivity. 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 — w-as the ques- 
 tion, then demanding solution. This state of facts gave form 
 and shape to the anti-slavery sentiment throughout the 
 North, aud the conflict began. Northern anti-slavery men 
 of all panics asserted the right to exclude slavery from this 
 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 de- 
 
manded a division of it, on tho line of the Missouri restric- 
 tion, or an equal participation in the whole of it. These 
 propositions were refused, the agitation became general, 
 and the public danger 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 be- 
 longed to all, upon the principles of equity and justice. 
 The Constitution delegated no power to Congress to exclude 
 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 North- 
 west of the Ohio river, by what is called the Ordinance of 
 1787. That ordinance was adopted under the old confede- 
 ration, 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 17S3 
 with Great Britain; acquired territory by cession from 
 Georgia and North Carolina; by treaty from Franc>, and 
 by treaty from Spain. These acquisitions largely exceeded 
 the original limits of the Republic. In all of these acquisi- 
 tions 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 pro- 
 tected by public authority in their persons and property, 
 iintil the inhabitants became sufficiently numerous, and 
 otherwise capable of bearing the burthens 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 conmuinities, until 
 they entered as great and prosperous commonwealths into 
 the sisterhood of American States. Tn f S:JO, the North en- 
 deavored 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. Alter a bitter and pro- 
 tracted struggle, the North was defeated in her special ob- 
 ject; but her policy and position led to the adoption of a 
 section in the law, for the admission of Missouri,. prohibit- 
 ing slavery in all that portion of the territory acquired 
 from France, lying North of 36 deg. 80 min. North latitude, 
 and outside of Missouri. The venerable Madison, at the 
 time of its adoption, declared it unconstitutional; Mr. Jef- 
 ferson condemned the restriction, and foresaw its conse- 
 
quences, and predicted that it would result in the dissolu- 
 tion of the Union. His prediction is now history. The 
 North demanded the application of the principle of prohi- 
 bition of slavery to all of the territory acquired from Mex- 
 ico, 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 to abolish slavery in 
 the States where it exists. The South, with great unani- 
 mity, declared her purpose to resist the principle of prohi- 
 bition to the last extremity. This particidar question, in 
 connection with a series of questions aflecting the same 
 subject, was finally disposed of by the defeat of prohibitory 
 legislation. 
 
 The Presidential election of 1*^52, resulted in the total 
 overthrow of the adv'ocatcs of restriction and their party 
 frie^lds. Immediately fifter this result, the anti-slavery por- 
 tion of the defeated paity, resolved to unite all the elements 
 in the North, opposed to shivery, and to stake their future 
 political fortunes upon their hostility to slavery everywhere. 
 This is the party to whom the people of the North have 
 committed the government. They raised their standard in 
 1850), and were barely defeated; they entered the Presidential 
 contest again, in ISGO, and succeeded. 
 
 The prohibition of slavery in the territories, hostility to it 
 everywhere, the equality of the black and white races, dis- 
 regard of all constitutional guarrantees in its favor, were 
 boldly proclaimed by its leaders, and applauded by its fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 "With these principles ou their banners and these utter- 
 ances on their lips, the majority of the people of the North 
 demahd, that we shall receive them as our rulers. 
 
 The prohibition of slavery in the territories is the cardi- 
 nal principle of this organization. 
 
 For forty years this question had been considered, and de- 
 bated 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 ISGO, decided it in their own fa- 
 vor. We refuse To submit to that j\ulgment, and in vindi- 
 cation of our refusal, we olibr the constitution of our coun- 
 try, and point to the total absence of any express power to 
 exclude us; we oiler 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 prop- 
 er to the execution of any other power in relation to the 
 territories. "We ofter the judgment of a large minority of 
 the people of the North, amounting to more than one-third 
 
6 
 
 who uuited with the imai)iinous voice of the South against 
 this usurpation ; and finally, wo 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 sec- 
 tion 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 deliver- 
 ed np 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 diflicult 
 to employ language freer from ambiguity ; yet, for above 
 twenty j'^ears, the non-slaveholding State, generally, have 
 wholly refused to deliver up to us persons charged with 
 crimes attecting slave prooerty ; our confederates, with pu- 
 nic faith, shield and give sanctuary to all criminals, Vho 
 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 confederat- 
 ing with the Northern States ; without them, it is histori- 
 cally 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 of the several States for its efficiency ; the non- 
 slaveholding 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 ex- 
 ecution of this duly by Federal Oflicers. This law which 
 their own bad faitli rendered absolutely indispensable lor 
 the protection of constitutional rights, was instantly met 
 with ferocious rcvilings, and all conceivable modes of hos- 
 tility. 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-slaveholding State in the Union. We have their 
 covenants, 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 bis hands, is every where met, with fraud, with force, 
 and with legislative enactments, to elude, to resist 
 and defeat him ; claimants are murdered with impu- 
 nity ; Officers of the law are beaten by frantic mobs, insti- 
 gated by inflammatory appeals from persons, holding the high- 
 est public employment in these States, and supported by 
 legislation in conflict with the clearest provisions of the 
 Constitution, aud eveu tluMU'dinary principles of humanity. 
 In several of our confederate .States, a citizen can not travel 
 the high-way with his servant, who may voluntarily ac- 
 company him, without being declared by law a felon, and 
 being subjected to infamous punishments. It is difficult to 
 perceive how we could suifer more by the hostility, than by 
 the fraternity ofsucli brethren. 
 
 The public law of civilized nations requires every State 
 to restrain its citizens or subjects from committiug acts in- 
 jurious to the peace and safety of any other State, and from 
 attempting to excite insurrection, or to lessen the security, 
 or ti^ disturb the tranquility of their neighbors, and our Con- 
 stitution wisely gives Congress the power to punish all of- 
 fences against the laws of nations. 
 
 These are sound and just principles which have received 
 the approbation of just men in all countries, and all centu- 
 ries. But they are wholly disregarded by the people of the 
 Northern States, and the Federal Government is impotent 
 to maintain them. For tsventy 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 amongst us. They have sent 
 emissaries among us, for the accomplishment of these pur- 
 poses. Some of these efforts have received the public sanc- 
 tion 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 eflbrts have in one instance 
 led to the actual invasion of one of the slave-holding States,^ 
 and those of the nuirderer* and incendiaries, who escaped 
 public justice by flight, have found fraternal protection 
 among our Northern Confederates. 
 
 These are are the men who say the Untcni shall he 'preserv- 
 ed. 
 
 Such are the opinions and such are the practices of the 
 Republican Party, who have been called by their own votes 
 to adminster the Federal Government under the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States; we know their treachery, we know 
 the shallow pretences 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 
 
uever sought to evade aity of its obligations; the)' have nev- 
 er hitherto sought to establish any new government, the}' 
 have struggled to maintain the ancient right of themselves 
 and the human race, through and by that Constitution. 
 But they know the vahie of parchment rights, in treacher- 
 ous hands, and therefore, they refuse to commit their own 
 to the rulers whom tlie North offer us. Why ? Because 
 by their declared princii)les and policy, they have outlawed 
 three thousand millions of our i)roperty in the common ter- 
 ritories of the Union, put it under the ban of tlie Republic 
 in the States where it exists, and out of the protection of 
 Federal law every wiiere, because they give sanctiuiry 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 purposes 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 cliildrcn, 
 and the desolation of our homes, our alters, 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 tranquilty. 
 
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