Warren County, Missi.,
Nov. 10, 1860.
Dear Sir:—I had the honor to receive, last night, yours of
the 27th ulto., and hasten to reply to the inquiries proprounded. Reports of
the election leave little doubt that the event you anticipated has occurred,
that electors have been chosen securing the election of Abraham Lincoln, and I
will answer on that supposition.
My home is so isolated that I have had no intercourse with
those who might have aided me in forming an opinion as to the effect produced
on the mind of our people by the result of the recent election, and the
impressions which I communicate are founded upon antecedent expressions.
1. I doubt not that the Gov'r of Missi. has convoked the
Legislature to assemble within the present month, to decide upon the course
which the State should adopt in the present emergency. Whether the Legislature
will direct the call of a convention, of the State, or appoint delegates to a
convention of such Southern States as may be willing to consult together for
the adoption of a Southern plan of action, is doubtful.
2. If a convention, of the State, were assembled, the
proposition to secede from the Union, independently of support from neighboring
States, would probably fail.
3. If South Carolina should first secede, and she alone
should take such action, the position of Missi. would not probably be changed
by that fact. A powerful obstacle to the separate action of Missi. is the want
of a port; from which follows the consequence that her trade being still
conducted through the ports of the Union, her revenue would be diverted from
her own support to that of a foreign government; and being geographically
unconnected with South Carolina, an alliance with her would not vary that state
of case.
4. The propriety of separate secession by So. Ca. depends so
much upon collateral questions that I find it difficult to respond to your last
enquiry, for the want of knowledge which would enable me to estimate the value
of the elements involved in the issue, though exterior to your state. Georgia
is necessary to connect you with Alabama and thus to make effectual the
cooperation of Missi. If Georgia would be lost by immediate action, but could
be gained by delay, it seems clear to me that you should wait. If the secession
of So. Ca. should be followed by an attempt to coerce her back into the Union,
that act of usurpation, folly and wickedness would enlist every true Southern
man for her defence. If it were attempted to blockade her ports and destroy her
trade, a like result would be produced, and the commercial world would probably
be added to her allies. It is therefore probable that neither of those measures
would be adopted by any administration, but that federal ships would be sent to
collect the duties on imports outside of the bar; that the commercial nations
would feel little interest in that; and the Southern States would have little
power to counteract it.
The planting states have a common interest of such
magnitude, that their union, sooner or later, for the protection of that
interest is certain. United they will have ample power for their own
protection, and their exports will make for them allies of all commercial and
manufacturing powers.
The new states have a heterogeneous population, and will be
slower and less unanimous than those in which there is less of the northern
element in the body politic, but interest controls the policy of states, and
finally all the planting communities must reach the same conclusion. My opinion
is, therefore, as it has been, in favor of seeking to bring those states into
cooperation before asking for a popular decision upon a new policy and relation
to the nations of the earth. If So. Ca. should resolve to secede before that
cooperation can be obtained, to go out leaving Georgia and Alabama and
Louisiana in the Union, and without any reason to suppose they will follow her;
there appears to me to be no advantage in waiting until the govt. has passed
into hostile hands and men have become familiarized to that injurious and
offensive perversion of the general government from the ends for which it was
established. I have written with the freedom and carelessness of private
correspondence, and regret that I could not give more precise information.
Very respectfully,
Yrs, etc..
Jeffn Davis.
SOURCES: Lynda Lasswell Christ and Mary Seaton Dix, editors, The
Papers of Jefferson Davis, Volume 6, pp. 368-71; The Vicksburg Harold, Vicksburg, Mississippi, March 3, 1867, p. 1; The Clarion, Jackson, Mississippi, March
7, 1867, p. 1.
