Sunday, July 16, 2023

Senator John C. Calhoun to Senator Herschel V. Johnson,* November 1, 1849

Fort Hill 1st Nov. 1849.

MY DEAR SIR, The enclosed is a speech of Mr Meade1 to his constituents, on the slavery question.

It is able and bold, and I send it as evidence of the increasing spirit of the old dominion on that vital question. Coming from the quarter it does it may contribute something to merge party feelings with you and rouse the spirit of your legislature.

I do trust your state will back the Mississippi movement. If they should and the other southern states should follow, I feel assured it would do more than anything else to bring the question to a speedy issue. It cannot be made too soon for us, but I have written you so fully on the subject that to add more would be little else than to repeat what I have already written.

With best regards to Mrs. J.

_______________

* Text derived from a copy furnished by Mr. Fred M. Steele, of Chicago, the owner of the original. Herschel V. Johnson, judge of the superior court of Georgia, was afterwards governor of that State, candidate for Vice-President on the Douglas ticket in 1860, and a Confederate senator.

1 Richard Kidder Meade, of Virginia, Member of Congress, 1847-1853. Speech of R. K. Meade on Restricting Slavery in the Territories, August, 1849, pp. 13.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, p. 773

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