Edenton [N. C], Mar. 6/61.
Dear Sir: Acquainted with no one in the Capital of the South ern] R[epublic], and my State unfortunately having no representative there, I beg you to furnish me with [a] little information if the numerous demands upon your time will permit. I am satisfied your ardent nature induces you to contribute in every and the least respect to the advancement of the Government in which you have recently embarked. From present indications Old Rip[i] has even pronounced against the propriety and expediency of assembling a convention. If this be so, the necessity of secession must soon be presented again to the people. If however the convention is called and the members, composed as it will be mostly of Unionists, are compelled by the withdrawal of Va. to consign No. Ca. to a similar fate, the people will be called upon to ratify it. In this section they are not even prepared for that, and my object in addressing you is to request that you will furnish me with the name of a proper person in the city through whom I may obtain what documents I desire for the purpose of promoting the Southern feeling and reconciling the majority here to the Southern Republic.
In the recent election we had but one candidate in this section whose ground was immediate secession and opposition to reconstruction. He of course was defeated. I take and have ever taken the So. Ca. and Georgia, ground. You will oblige me by also suggesting to me the name of the government organ in Montgomery, and if it has none, the best Southern-rights paper in the city. The provisional Constitution has pronounced against the Afr. slave trade. I hope the permanent one will do likewise.
[i] North Carolina.
From Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911.