Georgia Secession

William M Slaughter, Colonel, C.S.A. - Graduate of William and Mary College - Attorney at Law - State Senator - Commanding Officer of the 51st Reg. C.S.A.

Killed at Hamilton's Crossing, Virginia - May 2, 1863

Minutes to the Doiugherty County Superior Court for June Term 1863 - "Very early in the Battle of Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863, Colonel Slaughter was struck by a solid shot which first had passed throught the body of Capt. Daniel Sessions of the Lee County Company. Next beheading the Col.'s aide, Jesse Moughon, 20 year old son of a planter in Lee County, finally crushing the Colonel . . . "

Lincoln=s election to the presidency in November, 1860, brought to a climax a bitter quarrel between Southerners and Northerners and precipitated secession. In the South, a raging tempest of indignation and debate ensued over what action to take. Meetings were held all over Georgia and resolutions were forwarded to the legislature which was in session. At a meeting in Dougherty County, citizens resolved that a convention of the people of Georgia should be called Ato act in the defense of her interest and her outraged honor.@ The meeting recommended as Athe most sure guarantee against further aggressions . . . IMMEDIATE . . . AND INDEPENDENT SECESSION . . . RESISTANCE!@ Let the rally cry be heard from the mountains to the seaboard. ALincoln SHALL NOT BE PRESIDENT!@ But those who would immediately secede from the Union met with opposition. Many declared that Georgia and the South did not have just cause for secession and advised waiting for Lincoln=s inauguration and some overt action. To such arguments, A. J. Mc Carthy, the Albany Patriot editor, replies, Athis is not the cry of wait for any act not only disgraceful to a Southerner, but treason of his nativity . . ..@

Governor Joseph E. Brown immediately issued a proclamation calling a convention to decide what course the State would take. Dougherty County was entitled to two delegates, and their election was the signal for a heated debate between those who favored immediate secession and those who favored immediate secession and those who favored making demands for their State sovereignty and, if denied, then secession.

A large number of citizens met at the Courthouse on December 22 to nominate candidates for the January 16, 1861, Milledgeville (then State Capital), Convention. Col. W.M. Slaughter and D.A. Vason considered the meeting to be for Immediate Secession, while Nelson Tift spoke in opposition, stating A . . . for Georgia to maintain her rights first in the Union, and out of it only at the last resort.@ He was considered a cooperationalist, a Asubmissionist@ as their opponents called them.

At a meeting of the State Rights (cooperationalist) Lott Warren was nominated as a member of the convention. He stated Aas a member of the convention, if demands upon the Northern State for our rights were denied, he would vote even for the separate secession of Georgia. Dr. S.I. . Barbour was the second nominee.

Richard H. Clark and Charles E. Mallory were the candidates of the faction for Aimmediate secession.@ The election took place on January 2, 1861, with a triumphant victory for Clark and Mallory. IMMEDIATE SECESSION . . . 175 VOTES; COOPERATION . . . 95 VOTES, NOT CERTAIN . . . 8 VOTES. The Albany Patriot wrote that this was a AWaterloo@ victory for immediate secession.

The convention of the people of Georgia, including Dougherty County=s representatives Clark and Mallory, was called to order January 16, 1861, in accordance with the governor=s proclamation of November 21. With the exception of one man, who was then on his deathbed, every delegate was in attendance. It was without doubt the most distinguished body of men which has ever assembled in Georgia. Every Georgian of political prominence was a member, with the exception of Jos. E. Brown, Howell Cobb, and C.J. Jenkins, while these gentlemen were invited to seats on the floor on the convention. Of the 297 delegates, there were not four whose names were not of pure English, Scotch, or Irish origin. It would not have been possible to assemble in one hall, by any method of selection, a more truly representative body of the best intelligence of Georgia.

The fist two days were devoted to the organization and the reading of communications from the already independent states of South Carolina and Alabama. In a secret session of January 18, Mr. Nisbet offered the following resolution as a test in the matter of secession. A1. Resolved. That is the opinion of this Convention it is right and duty of Georgia to secede from the present Union . . . .@

Mr. H.V. Johnson offered as a substitute a resolution stating the affection of Georgia for the union and her desire to preserve it, if possible, calling for a convention of delegates of all states south of Pennsylvania and the newly independent republics. If their efforts should fail to secure the rights of the South in the Union, the State of Georgia would secede.

A vote was then taken on Nisbet=s original motion to secede and adopted 166 to 130 votes. Noting the results, many voters changed votes to approve immediate secession with a resulting final tally of 208 to 89. (Mr. N.M. Crawford explains the change in votes stating that after the pro-immediate vote, he considered it his duty to strengthen the moral effect of the State=s action by voting for the ordinance. Forty-three delegates changed their votes.

All delegates signed the ordinance but six, who nevertheless pledged their lives, if necessary to defend the State from hostile invasion from any source whatsoever.

Finally on January 21, 1861, the ordinance passed by the convention declaring Georgia a free, independent, and sovereign state was unanimously signed by the delegates. That night a brilliant celebration took place in Albany. In spite of a severe rainstorm Athe city was a blaze of living light.@ Music was supplied by a Negro band. The local artillery company Agave out its thunder tones in most rapid succession, averaging three to the minute . . .@ Speeches were made, and those who had opposed the secession of the state now declared that they would maintain it Awith their last drop of blood. A people thus unite must succeed B God grant us a safe deliverance from our enemies.@

It will be remembered that months elapsed between the secession of the Gulf States and of the great border states, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, which furnished so large a proportion of the soldiers who fought the Southern Confederacy. But, on the 15^th of April, 1861, an event occurred which instantly transformed those great states into Session States B the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln calling upon them to furnish their quota of troops to coerce the seceded states back into the Union, with Federal troops invading through those three states. The states were forced out of the Union: it was either that or join the Federal invasion of the South.

The summons to take up arms and march against their Southern brethren aroused deep indignation in these states and instantly transformed them into Secession States. These states had been far from endorsing secession and were eager to remain in the Union. Fervent pleas from Charleston, S.C., Milledgeville, Ga., and other sites in the deep south had not swayed them. But for Lincoln=s proclamation, the Southern army would not have been much more than half its size, and would have been without its greatest leaders.

Many historians suggest that Lincoln=s use of naval blockade alone, could have brought the recalcitrant states back into the Union, and his miscalculations on these border states resulted in a four-year war with the loss of 620,000 men.