[15] General Pryor informs me that at the convention of 1858 no one understood that there was any desire on the part of Yancey and others to reopen the slave trade. They recognized that the rest of the world was against them on that question and were demanding simply a repeal of what they considered discriminating laws. Yancey compared the question to that of the tea tax in the American colonies. See also Hodgson, p. 371, and Yancey’s speeches in Smith’s “Debates of 1861.”
[16] A branch of the Underground Railway reached from Ohio as far into Alabama as Tallapoosa County. Kagi, one of Brown’s confederates, had marked out a chain of black counties where he had travelled and where the negroes were expected to rise. He had travelled through South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Russell County, Alabama, was one of those marked on his map. The people were greatly alarmed when the map was discovered. See Seibert’s “Underground Railroad,” pp. 119, 160, 167, 195; Hinton, “John Brown”; Hague, “Blockaded Family.” As early as 1835 incendiary literature had been scattered among the Alabama slaves, and in that year the grand jury of Tuscaloosa County indicted Robert G. Williams of New York for sending such printed matter among the slaves. General Gayle demanded that he be sent to Alabama for trial, but Governor Marcy refused to give him up. See Brown’s “Alabama,” p. 167, and Gulf States Hist. Mag., July, 1903.
[17] Afterwards Confederate Secretary of War.
[18] Yancey was willing to disregard instructions and not withdraw; the rest of the delegation overruled him. See paper by Petrie in Transactions Ala. Hist. Soc., Vol. IV.
[19] Hodgson, Ch. 15.
[20] Acts of Alabama (1859-1860), pp. 689-690; Smith’s “Debates,” pp. 10, 11.
[21] Acts of Alabama (1859-1860), pp. 681-682; Senate Journal (1859-1860), pp. 147, 176, 293, 302.
[22] During this session Judge Sam. Rice, in reply to John Forsyth and others who feared that secession would lead to war, said: “There will be no war. But if there should be, we can whip the Yankees with popguns.” After the war, when he had turned “scalawag,” he was taken to task for the speech. “You said we could whip the Yankees with popguns.” “Yes,—but the damned rascals wouldn’t fight that way.”
[23] The popular vote in Alabama was: for Breckenridge, 48,831; for Douglas, 13,621; for Bell, 27,875.
[24] Many people believed that Hamlin was a mulatto.