Prior to and at the election of Abraham Lincoln, to the presidency of the United States, the people of Wmson Co were intensely Demorcratic, there being only about 100 Republicans in the county in 1860. This was then the home of John A Logan, who was a staunch Douglas Democrat, and very much opposed to the election of Lincoln. But after the inauguration many of the Democrats, as well as the Republicans, accepted and acted under the advise of Stephen A Douglas, to sustain and soport the new administration. Still there remained such a bitter feeling against the Republican party and its newly installed officers that, upon the approach of war, it grew into an open and outspoken sympathy for the Southern cause; and when the reader takes into consideration the fact that the people of this county were nearly all emigrants, or the children of emigrants, from Southern states, where their near and dear relatives were still residing, he will deem it no great wonder that such were their sympathies. This sympathy for the South increased and intensified until the secession of southern Illinois was openly advocated, and finally attempted. Soon after the fall of Fort Sumter a number of the "leading spirits" of the secession movement got together and called a public meeting, to pass ordinances of secession. Meanwhile they appointed a committee to draft resolutions and to report the same to the public meeting. The call was made for the people to assemble at the courthouse in Marion, on Monday, 15 Apr 1861 "to provide for the public saftey." In accordance therewith a large number of persons assembled, and the meeting was called to orer, and James D Manier elected president, GW Goddard, James M Washburn, Henry C Hopper, John M Cunningham and William R Scurlock were appointed a committee to draft resolutions expressive of the feelings of the people. This committee reported the resolutions already prepared by the committee first mentioned, and they were passed with only one dissenting vote, that of AT Benson. The resolutions were as follows:
Resolved, That we, the citizens of Wmson Co, firmly believing, from the distracted condiction of our country, the same being brought about by the elevation to power of a strictly sectional party, the coercive policy of which toward the seceded States will drive all the border slave States from the Federal Union, and cause them to join the Southern Confederacy.
Resloved, That, in that event, the interest of the citizens of southern ILL imperatively demands at their hands a division of the State, we hereby pledge ourselves to use all means in our power to effect the same, and attach ourselves to the Southern Confederacy.
Resolved, That in our opinion, it is the duty of the present adminstration to withdraw all the troops of the Federal Government that may be stationed in Southern forts, and acknowledge the independence of the Southern Confederacy, believing that such a course would be calculated to restore peace and harmony to our distracted country.
Resloved, That in view of the fact that it is probable that the present governor of the State of ILL will call upon the citizems of the same to take up arms for the purpose of subjugating the people of the South, we hereby enter our protest against such a course, and as loyal citizens, will refuse, frown down and forever oppose the same.
The most glaring inconsistency in the action of the persons who composed this meeting was to pass ordinances of secession from their own government, and in the same to declare themselves "loyal citizens." They must have meant loyality tot he Southern Confederacy. By the next morning the news of the action of this meeting had reached Gen Prentiss, who was then in command of the Federal troops at Cairo (IL). The citizens of Carbondale, becoming alarmed at the probable results, sent JM Campbell to Marion to request the people revoke the resolutions, and thus avert a war which otherwise would undoubtedly be brought to their own doors. Much excitement prevailed, and a meeting was called instanter to repeal the resolutions. THis meeting was not composed ot the same persons who were in the meeting of the 15th. Hon WJ Allen was called upon to deliver an address, which he did, and advised the repeal of the resolutions. Accordingly the resolutions were repealed, and AT Benson was apointed to present a copy of the proceedings of the meeting to Gen Prentiss. Upon arriving at Cario Mr Benson found the General reading a copy of the resolutions of secession. He then presented the General with the copy of proceedings of the meeting which repealed the resolutions, whereupon the General replied, "I am glad to see them. The resolutions of secession would have caused your folks trouble, but now I hope all will be right." The parties, however, who attended the first meeting contended the resolutions of secession were not repealed, and still retained their sympathy for the Southern cause, and called the citizens again to assemble on the 27th of the same month, which they did, when a meeting was called to order and a motin mad eto "seize the money in the hands of the sheriff to defray the expenses of arming and equipping the soldiers for the Southern Army." But this meeting, unlike the first, has an element in it loyal to the Government, nd the motion was lost, and the meeting broke up in disorder.