Copied from:  the Joseph Alvey Clayton-Margaret Amanda Poole Web Site
by Roger Bartlett

This  item was printed in The Navarro Express,
Corsicana, Texas, December 21, 1860, page 2, column 4.

PUBLIC MEETING.
______

At a mass meeting held in the town of Corsicana, on the 15th day of December, 1860, by previous appointment, for the purpose of nominating two candidates to represent Navarro and Hill counties in the approaching State Convention, J. A. Clayton was appointed President, Edwin Garlic, J. T. Spence, Elijah Melton, F. M. Martin, and Benjamin Roberts, Vice-Presidents, and J. Eliot and L. T. Wheeler Secretaries.

     . . .

Prior to balloting,the following resolutions were passed:

     Resolved, That we deem it unwise to ask additional guarantees for our rights in the Union, experience having shown that the guarantees of the Constitution are wholly ineffectual, and every compromise and guaranty that has been made, as ruthlessly and wickedly broken as it was solemnly and sacredly made.

     Resolved, That the doctrine of negro equality is abhorrent to every feeling of our nature, and if Texas will be true to her great history, and withdraw from the poisonous contract and degrading breath, we severally pledge ourselves to stand by her in every hour of peril, and hold up her stainless hands, the pride of a free, happy and great people, or failing will find a common honored grave in her bosom.

     Resolved, That action, strong, determined and resolute, is now the part of wisdom for Texas, and that she should at once, and without hesitation secede from the Northern States, and resume the powers delegated to the Federal Government.

     . . .

Went into the election of a candidate [for the state convention] by ballot, and after a spirited contest, at the end of the third ballot Joseph A. Clayton, having a majority of all the ballots cast, was declared by a viva voce vote unanimously nominated as the choice of the meeting.