SUBJECT: 62 Joseph Syler
LOCATION: Winchester, Franklin County, TN
DATE: February 25, 1861
NOTES: Joseph Franklin Syler was one of the two secretaries who signed this document.
Resolutions for the Secession of Franklin County
- Resolved, That the action of the State of Tennessee, on the 9th inst., is to us a source of unfeigned mortification, and regret, as we hoped that her course would have been so different, as to have, by the 4th day of March next, divorced Tennessee forever from her present bonds of political union, and have united her fate-for weal or woe, with her seven proud and gallant sisters of the South, which have so divorced themselves.
- Resolved, That while against our wills and earnest desire, we as Tennesseans are forced to remain citizens of the Federal Union, our hearts, sympathies and feelings are with the Confederate States of America, and we still hope that the day will review and reverse her action, and give birth to another State upon the National Flag of the Southern Republic.
- Resolved, That we hope that the Northern fanatics have read the speeches of the Presidents- Davis and Lincoln, (Made enroute for their respective seats of government) and see the difference, and from it learned a lesson of common sense, which will cause them to hush their insane croaking about the ignorance of the Southern people, since, they must see that while the Confederate States have for their representative a gentleman, a scholar and a statesman, the Federal Union has a wag, a mental dwarf.
- Resolved, That the speeches of President Lincoln, intimating coercion, deserve, and will receive, the supreme contempt of every true Southern heart; and when the Federal government, under the administration of Mr. Lincoln, shall call for troops to invade or coerce the seceding States, Old Franklin will respond as becomes freemen who know their rights, and dare maintain them-not to aid the Federal Government, but to resist, even unto death, the Federal policy. If war must come, our fate is, and shall be, with our sisters of the South; their cause shall be our cause- with them we will stand, or with them fall.
- Resolved, That we earnestly petition the Legislatures of Alabama and Tennessee through them, and by ourselves, and all other authorities that can give us any aid in the matter, to change the line between the States, so as to transfer the county of Franklin to the State of Alabama, unless, before this can be done, Tennessee secede from the Union, thereby giving to us a government having our consent. And that copies of this and the next resolution be sent to the governors of Alabama and Tennessee as early as can be.
- Resolved, That upon the conditions of the 5th resolution, we declare ourselves out of the Union, subject to be ratified by the States of Alabama and Tennessee, as provided in said resolution, which we again earnestly request may be early attended to.
Then I. T. Carr, Esq., being called on, after making a few appropriate remarks, submitted the following resolutions which were unanimously adopted:
- Resolved, That we have ever stood by the Constitution, its impacts and compromises, but they have been ruthlessly set aside by the republican party and the Chicago platform adopted instead thereof, and we are now duty bound to the framers of the Constitution, the Revolutionary sires, our ancestors, to posterity, our homes, and our sacred honor, to adhere to it now as reaffirmed by the Confederate States of America.
- Resolved, That in as much as the movements now made in Congress of the United States of North America, and the incoming administration thereof, threaten to blockade our ports, force revenues, suspend postal arrangements, destroy commerce, ruin trade, depreciate currency, invade sovereign States, burn cities, butcher armies, gibbet patriots, hang veterans, oppress freemen, blot our liberty, beggar homes, widow mothers, orphan children, and desolate the peace and happiness of the nation with fire and sword,-these things to do, and not to disappoint the expectation of those who have given him (Mr. Lincoln) their votes. Now, against these things we, in the name of right, the Constitution, and a just God, solemnly enter our protest; and further, when that which is manifested shall have come upon the country, we say to Tennessee: Let slip the dogs of war and cry havoc!
- Resolved, That we commend in the highest the true and loyal chivalry of the sons of the South who have resigned their offices under the late Federal government of the United States, in the army, navy, and otherwise.
Then F. T. Estill, Esq., Dr. Childs and others addressed the crowd. Afterwards Mr. A. Jourdan sang a Southern Marseilles, which was highly appreciated by all, and for which all joined in hurras and loud and protracted applause for Mr. Jourdan. /S/ Thos. Finch, Ch'n, J. F. Syler, N. Frizzell Secretaries, Winchester, Tennessee, 25 Feb. 1861.