Record Data
Source citation
Reprinted in Frank Moore, ed., The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, with Documents, Narratives, Illustrative Incidents, Poetry, Etc. (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1862), IV: 529.
Author (from)
Citizens of Franklin County, Missouri
Type
Legislative record
Date Certainty
Exact
Transcriber
John Osborne
Transcription date
Transcription
The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.
On the twenty-seventh of April, 1862, the people of Franklin County, Missouri, gave their response to the Emancipation Message of President Lincoln in the following resolutions:
The people of Franklin County, Missouri, in mass meeting assembled, appreciating the blessings of Liberty, as we have enjoyed and received them under the Constitution and Government of the United States, do resolve:
I. That we will neither vote nor give our influence for any man, for any office, who we know or believe is now, or ever has been, in favor of a dissolution, nor who has not been at all times of unshaken and outspoken loyalty, nor who has ever hesitated to acknowledge the supremacy of the authority of and the duty of allegiance to the Federal Government, as paramount to all other authority or allegiance; nor will we submit, until we have exhausted our constitutional and legal means of resistance, to the exercise of civil authority over us by any man who has ever counselled, aided, or abetted the crime of treason against the Constitution and Government of the United States, or resistance to the exercise of lawful authority by the President, or other officers legally invested with authority, under the Constitution and Laws of the United States.
II. That the people of Missouri are the sole judges of what local and domestic institutions they require for their peace, happiness, and prosperity as a people, and in the exercise of that right we declare our solemn conviction that Negro Slavery is destructive of all these blessings. We therefore pledge ourselves to a hearty support of any practical measure for the gradual emancipation and colonization of the slaves now in Missouri, which may be just and fair toward the present loyal owners, and which the lawmakers of our State may be able to devise in harmony with the policy of President Lincoln, as announced in his annual and recent messages to Congress.
III. That the intimate alliance of treason with Slavery in Missouri is a sufficient reason for all loyal citizens to oppose the perpetuation of the latter with the same vigor they seek the eradication of the former; and it is a duty we owe ourselves, our posterity, and the cause of free government, to demand such legal enactments as will place the institution of Slavery in Missouri upon a footing that the public mind will rest satisfied of its gradual extinction.
IV. That we will neither vote nor give our influence for any man for Governor, or for the Legislature, who is not pledged to the support of a proposition having for its object the erection of a legal barrier to the further immigration of slaves into this State, nor who is not pledged to the support of a practical, just, and fair proposition for the emancipation and colonization, outside of the Union, of all the slaves in the State.
V. That the doctrines and policy enunciated by President Lincoln, in his recent and annual messages, for the preservation of the Union, meet our hearty and undivided support; and while we deprecate civil war, and desire the smile of peace to illumine our country again, we feel that the "Union must be preserved," and the war should not cease until the national authority is practically reacknowledged.
VI. That we recommend Samuel T. Glover, Esq., of St. Louis, to the loyal people of the State as a candidate for Governor, and invite them to join with us in soliciting him to become a candidate.
These resolutions were adopted unanimously.