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[Secession Crisis - Georgia - Unionism] Felton, JohnBiblio.com

A Georgia Letter Written Three Weeks After Lincoln's Election Predicting the Secession of South Carolina and Alabama "like a swarm of Bees without a Leader Except Old Beech like a dodo

1860réf. BK0162Cass County Georgia 1860. Autograph letter signed "John Felton" on lined paper. Possibly written to an S. Slocum with that name verso. 12 x 8 inches. Old folds staining and soiling with chips and short tears at edges; good. An excellent Georgia letter from the first weeks of the secession crisis written twenty days after Abraham Lincoln's election. The writer was almost certainly Captain John Felton 1790-1870 a War of 1812 veteran farmer and longtime Whig who moved to Cass County now Bartow County in 1847. He was the father of future Georgia Congressman William H. Felton and father-in-law of Rebecca Latimer Felton who later became the first woman to serve in the United States Senate. Felton begins with news of poor health drought and the crops before turning to politics: "The whole Country is in an uproar politically we have many Speeches for & Against union & Disunion Tracts & pamphlets in circulation in Order To widen the Breach Between the North & South by those that would be Office Holders. O how we lack a Leader A Washington or a Clay to step in with a Compromise & Calm the Troubled waters but they are gone & left us like a swarm of Bees without a Leader Except Old Beech like a dodo or like an Old Gander that knows nothing but to pick up Trash & throw it Behind Him - from the Signs of the Times I think South Carolina & Ala will secede. What Ga will do is to be Seen." South Carolina seceded less than a month later followed by Alabama and Georgia. Felton's uncertainty about his own state was well placed in Cass County which narrowly elected a delegation opposed to immediate secession; all three of its delegates initially voted against it at the state convention. Felton notes that "This Excitement has caused property to decline" before giving current prices for corn wheat and cotton. He also tells his correspondent that if "the times get Squally in N. York" he hopes he will "Set Sail for what I hope you consider your Southern Home and light awhile at least with us" adding that they would be delighted to receive him. The verso is docketed "S. Slocum"; a Slocum connection to the Feltons is documented as early as 1855-56 when Joseph Slocum was prospecting for copper on what was later recorded as the Felton property.1 1 Joseph P. D. Hull Report on the manganese deposits of Georgia Second report on manganese Index printing company 1919 148. . unknown