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Harper's Weekly 01/05/1861
SENATOR TOOMBS FOR SECESSION AT ONCE.
Mr. Toombs telegraphed, on 23d, the following address
to the people of Georgia:
“I came here to secure your constitutional rights, and
to demonstrate to you that you can get no guarantee for
those rights from your Northern confederates. The whole
subject was referred to a Committee of Thirteen in the
Senate. I was appointed on the Committee, and accepted
the trust. I submitted propositions, which, so far from
receiving decided support from a single member of the
Republican party of the Committee, were all treated with
derision or contempt. A vote was then taken in the Com-
mittee on amendments to the Constitution, proposed by
Hon. J. J. Crittenden, and each and all of them were vot-
ed against unanimously by the Black Republican members
of the Committee. In addition to these facts, a majority
of the Black Republican members of the Committee de-
clared distinctly that they had no guarantees to offer,
which was silently acquiesced in by the other members.
The Black Republican members of this Committee of
Thirteen are representative men of the party and section,
and, to the extent of my information, truly represent
them.
“The Committee of Thirty-three on Friday adjourned
for a week without coming to any vote, after solemnly
pledging themselves to vote on all the propositions then
before them on that day. It is controlled by the Black
Republicans, your enemies, who only seek to amuse you
with delusive hope until your election, that you may de-
feat the friends of secession. If you are deceived by them,
it shall not be my fault. I have put the test fairly and
frankly. It is decisive against you now. I tell you, upon
the faith of a true man, that all further looking to the
North for security for your constitutional rights in the
Union ought to be instantly abandoned. It is fraught
with nothing but ruin to yourselves and your posterity.
Secession by the 4th day of March next should be thundered
from the ballot-box by the unanimous voice of Georgia on
the 2d day of January next. Such a voice will be your
best guarantee for liberty, security, tranquillity, and
glory.
R. Toombs.”
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