Randolph County AlArchives News.....THE REBELS AND MONARCHY, signed by Wm H. Smith, Robt S. Heflin & A.A. West October 21, 1864
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The Pittsburgh Daily Commercial October 21, 1864
An Important Document Appeal from Loyal Southern Men to the Governor of the 
Loyal States. Distinction or Civil Liberty in the South Solemn warning: Against 
Rebel Machination in the North the People Ready for Reunion.
Rome, GA October 4, 1864. 
DEAR SIR: 
The paralyzed condition of the many thousands of Union men within the Southern 
States, both in and out of the rebel army, through the Instrumentality of an 
absolute and relentless despotism, places it most completely out of their power, 
without the aid of the United States army, to ever regain their liberties. 
Within the rebel lines not a vestige of civil liberty exists, and it is only 
when the fortunes of war throw ns within the reach of Federal protection, that 
we can, without the hazard of life, give expression to our desire for a 
restoration of the Union.
Completely divested of all power or influence over our leading men, and in a 
state of absolute vassalage to the arbitrary edicts of a military usurper, our 
only hope of release is upon the overthrow of the ambitious men who have thus 
enslaved us. 
In addressing you, we wish to be understood as appealing, not only to the Chief 
Executive of the State of Illinois, but to the Governors of the loyal states to 
be on their guard against the insidious encroachments of rebellion at your own 
doors and your own fireside. 
No pains will be spared by our leading rebels to bribe, seduce, deceive, or 
overawe your citizens into deadly conflicts and civil strife, so as thereby to 
render complete the downfall of free government upon the American continent, and 
we beg you to excuse us in thus taking the liberty to warn you of a danger which 
we consider imminent; and to urge you to let no considerations of mere party 
triumph be permitted to shut out from view even tor one moment. the great 
paramount object the suppression of the rebellion. 
Tell the people North that we implore the m to drop the negro question pro and 
con; and feel assured that we would not give up the Union for all the slaves on 
the face of the earth. 
We claim to know what rebellion its height and depth is, its length and breath 
and having, through changes wrought by the fortunes of war, been placed where we 
can once more exercise free speech, we yield to the impulses of duty, not only 
to our whole country, but to thousands of Union men who are yet held in bondage, 
when we assure you that nothing but the strong arm of military power can ever 
subdue it, or destroy its power for mischief. 
And as a confirmation of this view we beg leave to offer the following facts and 
arguments in reference to Rebellion and its designs: 
Leading disunionist of the South, for several years prior to the rebellion, 
exerted all their tact and ingenuity to find out some justifiable pretext to 
secede from the Union, and set up for themselves. At no time have they ever been 
satisfied with a government of equal rights and privileges, and they have ever 
considered it a compromise of their dignity to ask poor men, er the common 
people for the privilege of going to the Legislature, filling a seat in 
Congress, or of occupying other high and honorable positions.  
Ever longing for the pomp and splendor of monarchies, and for the entailment of 
exclusive hereditary emoluments and privileges, they have had no patience with 
the majority rule under our form of Government, which has given to the people 
political equality. They have always considered themselves as a class of 
superior men making no part of the people but entitled to all the exemptions and 
immunities of a privileged class. And in haranguing what they conceive to be the 
vulgar herd, they address them as menials, calling them " my people," as If they 
thought the people belonged to them. So accustomed are they to speak to their 
slaves calling them "my negroes" or "my servants". that in addressing the common 
hard-working citizens, they call them "my people;" and should they succeed in 
setting np a monarchy upon the ruins of the old Government, then the laboring 
and industrial class of people will be called " my subjects." 
Descendants of these who were disappointed in the overthrow of British supremacy 
over the American colonies, they have inherited the same love of monarchy which 
actuated the Tories of '76, and hence they have been untiring in concocting 
schemes, or in seeking pretexts, for the overthrow of the American Democracy. 
Here follows a review of the history of secession front 1832 till the 
culmination of the rebellion. The letter then resumes: 
The opportunity to elect Mr. Lincoln presented itself, and they, the 
disunionists, after helping to elect him, swore they would never submit to his 
administration, and thereupon they bolted from the Union, and undertook to set 
up for themselves, that they could protect their peculiar institution and yet. 
after all this fuss about Abolitionism, Mr. William L. Yancey (we have every 
reason to believe) was authorized by the Provisional Government to go to France 
with propositions to abolish slavery in the South provided Napoleon would 
recognize the independence of the Southern Confederacy, and he was further 
instructed to say that a monarchy for the South was in contemplation, and that 
an intimate alliance with France was desired with mutually advantageous terms, 
in reference to trade, supplies of cotton, & cc. 
Now these disunionists of the South, having monarchy steadily in view, and 
knowing that in all monarchies there is an ample number of poor necessitous men 
who can be used as common laborers, they can well afford to give up chattel 
slavery, provided they succeed in maintaining their independence. 
Thev the leading rebels and disunionists of the South are engaged in a war, not 
for the protection of chattel slavery (for that, we can assure you, was from the 
beginning a grand cheat), but a war for the express purpose of overthrowing 
Democratic Institutions, and establishing upon their ruins a government of pomp 
and splendor, of titled nobility, of exclusive privileges, exemptions and 
immunities; and of perpetual entailment of poverty, ignorance and wretchedness 
upon the poor. 
This end attained, then chattel slavery would be of no more consequence to them 
than it is to England where it has long since seen abolished. 
The leading spirits of rebellion have already repudiated the States rights 
doctrine, in view of consolidation and conquest, so as, to add to their kingdom 
the Northern States as fast as they can be prepared for the change by the 
rebellion and civil war in the North, which they (the leaders South) are 
incessantly praying for and trying to inaugurate; and here, in this connection, 
we will take the liberty to renew our warning to you against the seeds of 
rebellion which we clearly perceive in your midst; and to express a hope that 
the monstrosity of rebellion against a good Government will not be permitted to 
spread its desolations into your States. 
In conclusion, we repeat that the people of the South are now under a reigning 
despotism, which for cruelty and relentless barbarity has no parallel in the 
history of mankind, and that they have been lured into this bondage by deceitful 
promises first and coercion afterwards through a merciless conscription. They 
can date their downfall from liberty from the farcical election of conventions 
in the several Southern States, to decide upon the remedy or means or redress 
against the great crime of Lincoln in permitting himself to be elected according 
to the firms of the Constitution. Said Convention claimed plenary power to act 
with the privilege ever given to the people to ratify or reject their 
proceedings. Acts of secession were passed, a provisional government was 
established at Montgomery, and war was inaugurated by firing upon Fort Sumter, 
without ever permitting us to decide as to the propriety of these revolutionary 
proceedings; nor have we ever, for a moment, had the power to counteract the 
revolutionary purposes of our leaders. 
Their paramount object has been from the beginning the dissolution of the Union 
and the overthrow of civil liberty; and so tenacious are they in pursuit of this 
stupendous crime mat no offers of compromise and no entreaties can ever dissuade 
them from it. They have committed themselves again and again, in the strongest 
terms known to the English language, to never, under any circumstances. submit 
to a reconstruction of the Union; and here, to our sorrow, we do assure you 
that, until their proud spirit of rebellion is subjugated by the coercive power 
of war, we will never have either peace or reunion. 
The masses of the people South, if released from their present bondage, would 
not hesitate to accept any just and honorable propositions for reunion, but 
until their tyrannical leaders are whipped, they can never exercise this 
privilege. 
The straggle for the Presidency of the United States at this trying hour, fills 
us with fearful apprehensions, and we cannot close this paper without urging you 
to guard the people against suffering the prejudices of party spirit to blind 
them to the great paramount object of conquering our rebel leaders and restoring 
the Union. Let who will be elected, it is his duty to preserve the Union at all 
hazards and to take care that the laws of the United States be enforced, and it 
is the duty of every citizen of every State, so far as it is in his power, to 
sustain the President even in the exercise of extraordinary power, if necessary, 
to suppress the desolating scourge of rebellion. 
J. A. STUART. Rome, Ga. 
WM. C. Hicks. M. D. Cayuga, Miss. 
WM. H. SMITH, Randolph County, Ala. 
ROBERT S. HEFLIN, Member elect to Ala. Legislature. 
A. A. WEST, Member elect to Ala. Legislature. 
To His Excellency. Gov. Richard Yates, of Illinois

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