Henry Benning, after whom the Army base Fort Benning in Georgia is named, was a leader of the secession movement in his home state. After the Georgia secession convention voted to try to take the state out of the United States, Benning was designated a state commissioner to travel to Virginia to try to sway that state’s secession convention to also vote to leave. Benning made his speech at the Virginia convention on February 18, 1861 acting in his official capacity as the representative of the State of Georgia. In his own words, he explained that Georgia “seceded” to protect the system of enslavement of persons of African descent. You can find the whole speech here.
Here are some relevant excerpts in italics:
…a proper respect for this Convention requires that I should with some fulness and particularity, exhibit before the Convention the reasons which have induced Georgia to take that important step of secession, and then to lay before the Convention some facts and considerations in favor of the acceptance of the invitation by Virginia…
What was the reason that induced Georgia to take the step of secession? This reason may be summed up in one single proposition. It was a conviction, a deep conviction on the part of Georgia, that a separation from the North-was the only thing that could prevent the abolition of her slavery. This conviction, sir, was the main cause. It is true, sir, that the effect of this conviction was strengthened by a further conviction that such a separation would be the best remedy for the fugitive slave evil, and also the best, if not the only remedy, for the territorial evil. But, doubtless, if it had not been for the first conviction this step would never have been taken. It therefore becomes important to inquire whether this conviction was well founded.
Is it true, then, that unless there had been a separation from the North, slavery would be abolished in Georgia? I address myself to the proofs of that case.
In the first place, I say that the North hates slavery, and, in using that expression I speak wittingly. In saying that the Black Republican party of the North hates slavery, I speak intentionally. If there is a doubt upon that question in the mind of any one who listens to me, a few of the multitude of proofs which could fill this room, would, I think, be sufficient to satisfy him. I beg to refer to a few of the proofs that are so abundant; and the first that I shall adduce consists in two extracts from a speech of Lincoln’s, made in October, 1858. They are as follows: “I have always hated slavery as much as any abolitionist; I have always been an old line Whig; I have always hated it and I always believed it in the course of ultimate extinction, and if I were in Congress and a vote should come up on the question, whether slavery should be excluded from the territory, in spite of the Dred Scott decision, I would vote that it should.”
These are pregnant statements; they avow a sentiment, a political principle of action, a sentiment of hatred to slavery as extreme as hatred can exist. The political principle here avowed is, that his action against slavery is not to be restrained by the Constitution of the United States, as interpreted by the Supreme Court of the United States. I say, if you can find any degree of hatred greater than that, I should like to see it. This is the sentiment of the chosen leader of the Black Republican party; and can you doubt that it is not entertained by every solitary member of that same party? You cannot, I think. He is a representative man; his sentiments are the sentiments of his party; his principles of political action are the principles of political action of his party. I say, then; it is true, at least, that the Republican party of the North hates slavery.
Benning goes on to explain that the “North” is dominated by the Republican Party, that it is the Abolitionist Party, and that the Republican-controlled “North” is now set on the ultimate destruction of slavery.
Next Benning sketches out in lurid detail the outcome of the “North’s” program of Abolition if the southern states don’t rise up immediately and secede. In his imagining, White Supremacy is replaced by a multi-racial society in which Blacks can rise to the highest levels of government. Here is what the future looks like according to Benning if Virginia and the other slave states don’t secede:
If things are allowed to go on as they are, it is certain that slavery is to be abolished except in Georgia and the other cotton States… By the time the North shall have attained the power, the black race will be in a large majority, and then we will have black governors, black legislatures, black juries, black everything. [Laughter.] The majority according to the Northern idea, which will then be the all-pervading, all powerful one, have the right to control. It will be in keeping particularly with the principles of the abolitionists that the majority, no matter of what, shall rule. Is it to be supposed that the white race will stand that? It is not a supposable case. Although not half so numerous, we may readily assume that war will break out everywhere like hidden fire from the earth, and it is probable that the white race, being superior in every respect, may push the other back. They will then call upon the authorities at Washington, to aid them in putting down servile insurrection, and they will send a standing army down upon us, and the volunteers and Wide-Awakes will come in thousands, and we will be overpowered and our men will be compelled to wander like vagabonds all over the earth; and as for our women, the horrors of their state we cannot contemplate in imagination. That is the fate which Abolition will bring upon the white race.
Benning then destroys the ultimate object of white fear, the extermination of the Southern white “race.” This will be followed, in this complex fantasy, of the Blacks being driven out by the “Yankees”!
But that is not all of the Abolition war. We will be completely exterminated, and the land will be left in the possession of the blacks, and then it will go back into a wilderness and become another Africa or St. Domingo. The North will then say that the Lord made this earth for his Saints and not for Heathens, and we are his Saints, and the Yankees will come down and drive out the negro.
I am not going to reproduce the whole text of Benning’s speech here, having already included a thousand words from it. You can look at the full text yourself. Just a reminder, this was an official speech, delivered on behalf of the state of Georgia urging secession based on the preservation of slavery.
And this man has a U.S. Army base named after him.
[Thanks to Trent Zimmerle for reminding me of this speech.]
Feature Illustration: Ordinance of Secession Milledgeville, Georgia 1861
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