Today in History:

33 Series IV Volume I- Serial 127 - Correspondence, Orders, Reports and Returns of the Confederate Authorities, December 20, 1860 – June 30, 1862

Page 33 CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES.

I am fully aware that in all I have done in regard to the matters herein communicated I have taken great responsibilities. For my justification I rely upon the propriety and necessity of the course I have taken and upon the wisdom and patriotism of the convention and people of Alabama. In this great and trying crisis I have done all I could do to prepare the State for any emergencies that might occur. The great and responsible duty of protecting the rights, interests, and honor of Alabama is now imposed on the convention, and I do not doubt that her present proud and high position will be maintained. May the God of wisdom and justice guide you in your counsels.

A. B. MOORE.

The president laid before the convention the following telegraphic dispatches from the Hon. Edmund W. Pettus, commissioner from Alabama to Mississippi, and from the Hon. E. C. Bullock, commissioner from Alabama to Florida:

JACKSON, MISS., January 7, 1861.

A resolution has been passed to raise a committee of fifteen to draft the ordinance of secession.

E. W. PETTUS.

The convention met at 12. Mr. Barry is president. The State will probably secede to-morrow or next day.

E. W. PETTUS.

TALLAHASSEE, FLA., January 7, 1861.

Convention by vote of 162 to 5 adopted resolutions in favor of immediate secession. Committee appointed to prepare ordinance of secession.

E. C. BULLOCK.

WASHINGTON, D. C., January 8, 1861.

His Excellency A. B. MOORE,

Montgomery, Ala.:

SIR: In the discharge of the duties imposed by your appointment of commissioner from the State of Alabama to the State of Delaware, I prepared and delivered in person to His Excellency William Burton a communication in writing, which I requested should also be submitted to the Legislature, then in session, and a copy of which I herewith transmit to you. The health of my family prevented me from spending as much time with the Governor and Legislature as it was my wish and intention to have done. No reply to my communication has been received. I was assured that the State of Alabama had the sympathy of many of the citizens of Delaware in this trying emergency, although the members of the Legislature, not having been elected in view of the present crisis, would not probably give expression by a majority vote to this sympathy. From the best information which I received, I have no hesitation in assuring Your Excellency that, whilst the people of Delaware are averse to a dissolution of the Union and favor a convention of the Southern States, perhaps of all the States, to adjust and compromise if possible existing difficulties, yet, in the event of dissolution, however accomplished, a large majority of the people of Delaware will defend the South. An effort will be made to procure the call of a convention by the Legislature, which it is hoped will be successful; and then the people of Delaware can decide their own course according to their own conceptions of the requirements of honor, safety, and right. It gives me pleasure to report to Your Excellency my cordial reception by the officers of the

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Page 33 CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES.