South Carolina’s Governor on the War’s Outcome:
“the Union has been preserved... and now give justice and equality to all its members.” (SOLD) |
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Gov. James L. Orr, a former Speaker of the United Sates House, who then raised a Confederate regiment and served in the CSA’s Senate, notes the war’s two key outcomes: establishment of the “indissolubility” of the Union, which now must “give justice and equality to all its members.”
JAMES L. ORR.
Autograph Quotation Signed as Governor. Columbia, S.C., September 14, 1866. 1 p., 7¾ x 6½ in. On State of South Carolina letterhead with embossed Great Seal of the affixed at upper left.
Inventory #22736
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“The Union has been preserved – its indissolubility has been established and now give justice and equality to all its members.”
James L. Orr (1822 – 1873) was a Representative from South Carolina. He also served as Speaker of the House. Despite recognizing the gravity of secession, he remained loyal to his state, and attempted to negotiate reassigning federal assets to South Carolina after secession. The effort failed, resulting in the bombardment of Fort Sumter. Orr raised a regiment that saw little action while he was in command but went on to fight in some of the most significant battles of the Civil War. He also served in the Confederate Congress.
After the war, he was elected governor of South Carolina and in his November 29, 1865, Inaugural Address, he asserted that “The war has decided, first: That one or more of the States of the Federal Union have not the right, at will, to secede therefrom....The war decided, second: That slavery should be totally and absolutely exterminated in all the States of the Union....It cannot be doubted that, since the slave is emancipated, it is the purpose of the people to secure to him his rights of person and property as a freedman .” After his governorship, he served under President Ulysses S. Grant as ambassador to Russia.
Rather than preach continued animosity, Orr admitted that the South’s position had been bested and looked toward reconciliation. The New York Times eulogized him, leading with his postwar point of view: “The nation has lost one of the most valuable of its public men. His course since the war has one much to soften the asperities left by the conflict, and the example he set in the unqualified acceptance of the results of the contest was worth more to his country than has ever been admitted.”
Condition
Very good. Red ink line at perimeter of sheet and seal area. Lightly soiled.
Sources
Obituary, “James L. Orr.” New York Times, May 7, 1873.
