Today in History:

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

Page 71 CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES.

MONTGOMERY, January 19, 1861.

His Excellency Governor A. B. MOORE:

DEAR SIR: As soon as possible after receiving your commission to me to confer with the authorities of Texas, I visited Austin, the seat of government. I did not find either the Legislature or convention in session, and the Governor was absent. For his return I waited, and with him I had a short conference, being kindly and hospitably received by him and the citizens of Texas generally. The Governor being the only public authority with whom I could confer, I addressed to him a short communication in writing, which I now inclose, and from him received to-day by mail a reply, for which I could not wait for a personal delivery. This I also inclose. The citizens of Texas seemed everywhere to be alive to the grave issues which were forced upon them for consideration. I do not deem it proper to give the impression which was made on my mind as to their future action from what I saw and heard in my hurried trip from Galveston to Austin and back. This, however, is the less important, as her Legislature meets on the 21st instant, and a convention, called by her citizens themselves, meets on the 28th instant; and from these we shall soon have an authoritative expression of views and course of action. However unsatisfactory the meager results of my mission may be, I trust Your Excellency will think that I have done all I could do under the circumstances and in the short time allowed me.

With sincere respect, I remain, yours, &c.,

J. M. CALHOUN.

[Inclosure No. 1.]

AUSTIN, January 5, 1861.

His Excellency Governor SAM. HOUSTON:

DEAR SIR: I come as the accredited commissioner of the State of Alabama to consult and advise with yourself and the members of the State Legislature and of the convention of Texas as to what is best to be done to protect the rights, the interests, and the honor of the slave-holding States. Neither the Legislature of Texas nor any convention being now in session, and my speedy return to Alabama being required, my conference must be of necessity confined to yourself, with a request that my communication to you may be communicated to the Legislature of Texas when it shall assemble, as I am pleased to learn it will at no very distant day. In the performance of this my duty, under all the surrounding circumstances, I have only simply to say that Alabama, through her Legislature, being the first to more in the direction which may probably result in the severance of all connection with the Federal Government as the only means of saving her citizens from the utter ruin and degradation which must follow from the administration of that Government by a sectional, hostile majority, desires to assure her sister slave-holding States that she feels that her interests are the same with theirs, and that a common destiny must be the same to all; that, therefore, whatever may be the course which she may deem it proper to take to meet the dangers by which she as well as they are surrounded, she will do so with an earnest desire that there may be in the present and in the future an unbroken bond of brotherhood and union between herself and Texas and every other slave-holding State; that she will not act with rashness or thoughtlessness, but with mature and deliberate consideration; that she will, be all means, endeavor to avoid the doing of any act which


Page 71 CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES.