Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/297

 Address oj~ Major Graham Daves. 285

" Gov. John W. Ellis:

Call made on you by to-night's mail for two regiments of mili- tary for immediate service.

" SIMON CAMERON, ' ' Secretary of War. ' '

So North Carolina was to be required to make war upon her sister Southern States. But they reckoned without their host. Instantly the reply went back, bold, spirited, patriotic:

"Simon Cameron, Secretary of War:

" Your dispatch is received, and if genuine, which its extraor- dinary character leads me to doubt, I have to say in reply that I regard the levy of troops made by the Administration, for the pur- pose of subjugating the States of the South, as in violation of the Constitution, and as a gross usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina. I will reply more in detail when I receive your call.

"JOHN W. ELLIS, " Governor of North Carolina."

A terrible crisis was upon the country, but there was no hesita- tion. As one man the whole State responded to a proclamation of the Governor calling for troops for defense, and for supplies of all kinds. Military companies were formed everywhere, and a camp of instruction, Camp Ellis, was established at Raleigh, where they were organized and drilled.

There was no longer any division among the people, no doubt whatever as to their intent. Whatever may have been deemed ad- visable as to secession previously, there was but one mind now as to coercion, and especially as to the requirement that North Caro- lina should be a party to it, against which we protested with our utmost energy and resisted with our utmost ability. Let that be borne in mind. With us it was not so much an assertion of the right of secession, though that we did not deny, as an emphatic de- nial of the right of coercion.

On the lyth of April Governor Ellis issued his proclamation sum- moning the legislature to meet on the ist of May in extra session. Iii this proclamation, as in his reply to Cameron, and in his subse- quent message to the legislature, he dwells especially and earnestly