Oglethorpe, Ga., 13th March, 1861.  

Having been honored by the Convention of the people of Georgia with the appointment of Commissioner to North Carolina, to lay before the Convention or Legislature of that State, if either should be in session, and if not, before the Governor, the ordinance by which Georgia seceded from the late government of the United States, and to invite the cooperation of North Carolina, with her and other States that had seceded or might secede, in the formation of a Southern Confederacy, I took my departure early in February last, and reached Raleigh on the eleventh of that month.  On that day I waited upon his Excellency, John W.  Ellis, the Governor of the State, and made known to him my appointment and the purpose of my mission.  He received me with cordiality and entered into the purposes of this State with a cheerfulness and spirit which convinced me that the people of his State still held us in high regard and cherished for us sincere respect and esteem.  The Legislature being in session, his Excellency promptly communicated to them my commission with the accompanying ordinance of secession.  In response to this communication the “General Assembly,” by a vote of both houses, appointed a joint committee to wait upon me, to tender the privilege of the floor and invite me to address that honorable body upon the subject of my mission.  Every hospitality was offered and every attention was paid to your Commissioner.  Individually, I appropriated none of this to myself, but received it as a mark of respect to my State.  

Having accepted the invitation extended to me to address the “General Assembly,” I was, on Wednesday evening, the 13th February, introduced to them by the chairman of their joint committee.  Encouraged by the assurance given me in this introduction, that the Legislature and people of North Carolina admitted and “knew that the wrongs of which we complained were their wrongs,” “that the cause for which we were battling and preparing, if need be, to sacrifice our lives, was their cause,” that they recognized us as “their kindred” and “would never turn a deaf ear to the voice that came up from us,” I proceeded to deliver an address setting forth the causes which led to our separation, justifying, according to the measure of my feeble ability, the mode and measure of redress we had adopted, and vindicating the right of secession as regular, lawful and constitutional; holding that it should be therefore regarded as peaceable.  Assuring North Carolina of the cordiality with which she would be welcomed to the embrace of her ancient confederate and ally, I endeavored to persuade her that she would find her true interest, prosperity and honor in uniting her destiny with the “Confederate States of America.” That the affection of the members of her Legislature and the large audience of her sons and daughters that honored me with their presence, is still warm and strong for their former sisters, whose safety and honor required them to resume the powers delegated to a government which has failed to secure the one or regard the other, I had still more flattering and encouraging proof in the indignant and universal negative response made to the question propounded, “whether they would see Federal troops march from or through their State to coerce and attempt to subjugate their Southern brethren.”

In response to this address, I was charged by the General Assembly, through their accredited organ, the Hon.  Henry T.  Clark, Speaker of the Senate, to bear this message to the people of Georgia:

“After giving this momentous question our best and most anxious deliberation, we have referred it to the sovereign people in convention assembled.  Their judgment and decision will form the guide of our faith and the rule of our conduct, and to that tribunal alone can we look for any authorized response to the friendly counsels and suggestions of our fellow suffering sister State.  But without reference to the amount of our sympathy or the extent of our co-operation with her in her present struggle, we will at least assure her that no hostile foot shall ever march from or through our borders to assail her or hers.”

I take the liberty of transmitting, through you, to the Convention, a copy of the remarks I had the honor to submit on the occasion.  

What seemed to me the greatest obstacle to the immediate co-operation of North Carolina with the “Confederate States,” was the belief entertained by the larger number of her citizens that the “Peace Conference,” (so called) then in session at Washington city, would grant the demands for new guaranties in the Constitution made by Virginia and North Carolina that their recommendation would be sanctioned by the Congress of the United States, and adopted by the requisite majority of the States remaining in the old Confederacy to make it a part of the Constitution, and that upon this basis an entire reconstruction of the Union would be affected.  

In combatting this view.  I ventured the opinion that so far as the action of the “Peace Conference” and Congress was concerned, this confidence would be disappointed; but even if it was fully met and sustained, it would not be acceptable to the States that had seceded, that they had no objection to the old Constitution, which, when properly interpreted and fairly carried out.  was adequate to secure all the objects for which it was formed; that there could be no more solemn or binding covenants than those contained in that instrument, the fault was not in the law but in its execution.  We could not expect the Northern people to observe new compacts better them they had observed the old; that they would have to be re-educated; their morals would have to be reformed, and their very natures changed before we could again give them our confidence; that so far as we were concerned the separation was “final and irrevocable,” and the people of North Carolina were therefore reduced to the necessity of choosing between an alliance with the North or with the Confederate States of America.  I was fully justified in my statement as the disposition of our people to reconstruct, by the declaration made by the able Commissioner sent by the Legislature of North Carolina to the Southern Congress at Montgomery, who reported from ample means of information, contemporaneously with my arrival at Raleigh, that the persons in the Confederate States, in favor of such a measure, constituted an exceedingly meagre minority.  

That I was right as to the action of Congress and the “Peace Conference.” subsequent events have fully established.  I have delayed this communication that I might lay before the Convention the result of the election which took place in North Carolina on the 28th ult.  

The question submitted to the people by the act of the legislature was whether they would call a Convention.  Those voting for a Convention were generally understood to be in favor of separate State action as a step preparatory to co-operation with their Southern sisters.  The short time that elapsed between the passage of the act and the election precluded the possibility of anything like a thorough canvass of the State; in fact, it is only within the last ninety days that the subject began to be agitated in public meetings.  The friends of separate State action were then few, but now they number nearly fifty thousand.  Their defeat in the recent election by a popular majority of less than one thousand gives us no reason to feel discouraged.  The election occurred on the day after the “Peace Conference” adjourned, and I am informed from sources entitled to the highest credit, that the result was brought about by dispatches sent to the central and western portions of the State, announcing that the “Conference” had agreed upon a satisfactory adjustment, which would certainly be adopted by Congress.  If such means were resorted to, we can only calculate with greater certainty upon the reaction which will occur in popular sentiment; indeed it is now said that the reaction has already taken place, and that the advocates of separate State action and an alliance with the South have a decided majority of the suffrages of the State.  A delegate to that Conference, who, prior to its meeting, was an ardent friend of the Union, has, since his return, stated to his constituents that their propositions for amendments to the Constitution, were, five distinct times, voted down by large majorities, and that in lieu thereof (as is apparent to every one at all acquainted with the scheme proposed) that they were thereby prohibited from exercising the right they now have of going into the territories north of 36 deg.  30 min.  north latitude with their slaves, while their right to emigrate with that species of property to the territories south of that line will depend upon the interpretation placed upon the common law by judges deadly hostile to their interests, insult is added to this certain exclusion by demanding the recognition by the Southern States remaining in the old confederacy, of free blacks as citizens of the Northern States which they inhabit and by extending to them all the rights and privileges of citizens of the several States; this plan has rendered the fugitive slave law (already an insufficient protection to the rights of the South) worse than a dead letter, by guaranteeing payment to the owner of the slave out of the Federal treasury, whenever such a fugitive is withheld from the custody of his master by the action of a Northern mob or Northern State laws and tribunals; thus holding out a direct inducement to the abolitionists to free the slaves of those people and to compel them to use their own means, at least in part, and in great part, too, to compensate themselves for their losses.  This scheme was voted against by North Carolina, Virginia and Missouri in the conference, and the delegate above alluded to has advised his constituents that their only safety is in a Union with their Southern sisters.  I believe, from all that I can learn, that a very large majority of them are agreed with him as to the character of this concession, and that they only await an opportunity to give effect to his sound and patriotic advice.  Delay in this respect must result in material injury to the State in the loss of its slaveholding population, with the property held by it, which will seek safety by emigrating to and settling in the Southern Confederate States.  Under these circumstances I cannot doubt that an opportunity will be afforded at an early day to the people to vote again upon the subject, and when the vote is taken, I have still less doubt of what will be the popular verdict.  I therefore confidently anticipate, in a very short time, the cooperation desired and invited by Georgia, and that we shall have the happiness of welcoming with open arms and joyful hearts, our honored and loved sister to our new and better Union.  

I have the honor to subscribe myself

                                Very respectfully,

                                              Your obedient servant,

 SAMUEL HALL.