January 2, 1861

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... Georgia's state legislature set January 2, 1861, as the election date for a state convention, which was to meet on January 16 ... Immediate secessionists, mostly former Democrats headed by Howell Cobb, Thomas R. R. Cobb, Joseph E. Brown, Henry Rootes Jackson, Robert Toombs, and others, believed that Lincoln's election violated the spirit of the U.S. Constitution and provided clear evidence that a tyrannical northern majority intended to trample on southern rights and ultimately abolish slavery ... Cooperationists, a varied collection of former Whigs and conservative Democrats, were led by Alexander Stephens, Herschel Johnson, and Benjamin Hill. Cooperationists agreed that the South faced great dangers and that Republicans would have to be forced to provide strong guarantees that would protect slavery and southern rights if Georgia was to remain in the Union ... The exact results of the January 2 election, in terms of total votes cast for each side statewide, will probably never be known: there were voting irregularities, and some of the candidates held ambiguous positions. Although the unofficial count released—not until April—by Governor Joseph E. Brown showed a lopsided victory for the immediate secessionists, the best evidence indicates that they won, at best, a tiny majority of the ballots cast, 44,152 to 41,632. Outside of the mountain counties (strongly cooperationist) and the coastal counties (overwhelmingly for immediate secession), voting patterns were mixed ...

Secession
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1085

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1. The State of affairs at Fort Sumter (Richmond Daily Dispatch)

From the accounts of a number of laborers who were sent from Fort Sumter on Friday night, our reporters have gleaned a mass of highly interesting details in relation to the strength and present condition of the great fortress which now forms the last stronghold of Federal authority within the limits of our State.

About six weeks ago, when there were no troops in Fort Sumter, the Federal officers in charge of that post proposed to the workmen employed in completing the fortifications, and who then numbered about 150 men, that they should enlist in the United States service, and thus vary the monotony of handling the trowel and the derrick, by a little daily practice with the musket and the howitzer ...

Thus matters wore on until the transfer of the garrison of Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. On Thursday evening, when the Palmetto banner floating over Castle Pinckney; and the rockets from Fort Moultrie announced to the lookouts on the ramparts of Fort Sumter the occupation of both those works by the State troops, the impression was quite prevalent among the United States officers that a sudden attack upon their own position would follow ...

http://www.civilwar-online.com/2011/01/january-2-1861-state-of-affairs-at-fort.html

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2. January 2, 1861 - Yulee and Mallory take the first step

... Florida's two U.S. Senators, Stephen Mallory and David L. Yulee, took the first military step in the chain of events leading to the state's departure from the Union ...

Senate Chamber, January 2, 1861*
To the SECRETARY OF WAR:

Sir: We respectfully request you to inform us what is the numerical force of the troops now in garrison at the various posts in the State of Florida, and the amount of arms, heavy and small, and ammunition, fixed and loose, at the various forts and arsenals in that State.

Respectfully, your obedient servants,

D.L. YULEE
S.R. MALLORY ...

http://civilwarflorida.blogspot.com/2011/01/january-2-1861-yulee-and-mallory-take.html

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3. Pennsylvania Legislature

Date: 1/2/1861
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)

HARRISBURG, January 1, 1861

... The Senate then proceeded to the election of a Speaker, when ROBERT M. PALMER, of Schuylkill received 25 votes, and JEREMIAH SHINDEL, of Lehigh, 7 votes. Mr. PALMER voted for Mr. SHINDLE, and Mr. SHINDEL voted for Mr. PALMER ...

SPEECH of Mr. PALMER ...

... But it has been alleged against Pennsylvania, by persons high in authority in our sister States, that there are laws on our statute books in derogation of the Constitution of the United States, and of the acts of Congress passed in accordance with its provisions. If this be so, which I am not prepared to admit and do not believe, the country ought to know that it was not intentionally done. This great State has given sufficient proof by her acts in the time past, that she is conservative, law-abiding, Union and Constitution loving, to relieve her from any imputation of intentional infringement of the Constitution, or willful attempt at nullification of Constitutional Congressional enactments ...

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/civilwar/2011/01/02/pennsylvania-legislature/

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4. Report of Alabama's Commissioner to Louisiana

JANUARY 2, 1861.
His Excellency A. B. MOORE:

SIR: In obedience to your instructions I repaired to the seat of government of the State of Louisiana to confer with the Governor of that State and with the legislative department on the grave and important state of our political relations with the Federal Government, and the duty of the slave-holding States in the matter of their rights and honor, so menacingly involved in matters connected with the institution of African slavery ...

Trusting that the time has come when not only Alabama but the entire South will prove prepared to vindicate her honor by a fearless assertion of her rights and her determination to enjoy them,

Most respectfully, your obedient servant, &c.,

JOHN A. WINSTON

[Lucinda]

5. TY for these...Bookmarking to read tomorrow!

:hi: