Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians, with Illustrations and Speeches
History
Lives of Distinguished North Carolinians, with Illustrations and Speeches
North Carolina -- Biography
Governor Graham undertakes to set forth Mr. Badger's reasons for
finally favoring the secession of North Carolina from the Union, but
the reader will see from the subjoined resolutions that it is best
to allow Mr. Badger to speak for himself. He and the people of North
Carolina then assumed as axiomatic that Lincoln's call for troops
to invade the South was utterly without warrant of law. Strong as
was the language of the resolutions, it was not strong enough to
express the indignation of the people at Lincoln's usurping the
authority to begin the war on his sole responsibility. Not mainly
because the institution of slavery was threatened, nor yet because
we were wedged between seceding States, but because the people, as
one man, believed that the most vital powers of a government of
three departments had been violently seized by the Executive, that
the seizure was supported by a conspiracy of States, and that the
Constitution and the Union of the fathers were already outraged and
dismembered.
The resolutions above alluded to, and a part of the speech delivered
in the United States Senate, March 19, 1850, instructive in
themselves, are given also as specimens of Mr. Badger's style.
ORDINANCE OF SECESSION.
PROPOSED BY GEO. E. BADGER.
"Whereas, Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, and Hannibal Hamlin, of
Maine, were chosen President and Vice-President of the United
States by a party in fact and avowedly entirely sectional in
its organization, and hostile in its declared principles to the
institutions of the Southern States of the Union, and thereupon
certain Southern States did separate themselves from the Union, and
form another and independent government, under the name of 'The
Confederate States of America'; and
"Whereas, the people of North Carolina, though justly aggrieved by
the evident tendency of this election and of these principles, did,
nevertheless, abstain from adopting any such measures of separation,
and, on the contrary, influenced by an ardent attachment to the
Union and Constitution, which their fathers had transmitted to them,
did remain in the said Union, loyally discharging all their duties
under the Constitution, in the hope that what was threatening in
public affairs might yield to the united efforts of patriotic men
from every part of the nation, and by their efforts such guarantees
for the security of our rights might be obtained as should restore
confidence, renew alienated ties, and finally reunite all the
States in a common bond of fraternal union; meantime, cheerfully
and faithfully exerting whatever influence they possessed for the
accomplishment of this most desirable end; and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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