“In God’s Name, Let Them Go Unmolested”

The Delaware Grays: The Sons of Confederate Veterans.

After Georgia had sent a request to Delaware to join the Southern Confederacy in February, 1861, the Delaware House of Representatives adopted resolutions which called for a convention of all the States to settle the slavery controversy; and allowed no State the right of secession, but recognized the inherent right of revolution. Delaware was one of the northernmost slaveholding States with an economy tied to the South.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"

“In God’s Name, Let Them Go Unmolested”

“Congressman [William G.] Whiteley [of Wilmington, Delaware] served on the Committee of Thirty-Three and signed a minority report of that Committee. The minority report was signed by five congressmen, all from either Southern or border States. Whiteley and these congressmen advocated peaceful secession. They believed that:

“….the doctrine of the indissolubility of the general government has no foundation in the public law of the world….”

Also, ….”that no power has been conferred upon the general government, by the Constitution….to keep a State in the Union.” They became specific when they stated that: “You cannot coerce fifteen sovereign States…..That a separation, which has become inevitable, shall be bloodless.”

Whiteley signed a statement advocating the secession of all slaveholding States, including Delaware. Specifically, it proposed that there should be no war, but peaceful separation. Succinctly, they stated their position:

“Whether any State has or has not the right to seceded under the Constitution, it is a matter of fact that four States have already seceded; and that in a few short months – perhaps weeks – all of the other slaveholding States will have in like manner seceded, with the purpose of maintaining their new position, by force of arms, if no adjustment is made of the differences between them and the non-slaveholding States.”

After the firing on Fort Sumter, William G. Whiteley held to his previous position. On June 27 at a mass meeting in Dover he stated:

“In God’s name, let them go unmolested…Would Delaware give money or men to hold States as conquered provinces?....Could the South be subjected? Never!”

(The Secession Movement in the Middle Atlantic States, William C. Wright, Associated University Presses, 1973, pp. 86-87)

“In God’s Name, Let Them Go Unmolested”