A. A. Echols letter to Governor Emory Washburn


Descriptive Summary
Title: A. A. Echols letter to Governor Emory Washburn
Creator: Echols, A. A.
Inclusive Dates: 1860 November 12
Language(s): English
Extent: 1 folder(s)
Collection Number: ms1151
Repository: Hargrett Library

Collection Description

Historical Note

A. A. Echols was a Unionist from Savannah, Georgia, before Lincoln's election. After this event, he turned against the United States, saying Lincoln's election was a "deathblow" to government.

Emory Washburn, A. A. Echols' longtime friend, was born in 1800 and died in 1877. He was the 22nd Governor of Massachusetts from 1854 to 1855. He was the last Whig governor to be elected and lost his seat two years later to the Know Nothing Party in the elections held in 1854. He eventually founded the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He became politically active after the war in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1876-1877. Washburn taught law at Harvard University through the war and served on several college and society boards. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was buried there sometime after the war.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of a letter from A. A. Echols, dated November 12, 1860 from Savannah, Georgia, to Emory Washburn, former governor of Massachusetts. This lengthy letter, prompted by Lincoln's election six days earlier, expresses early Southern reaction to that election, Civil War causes, and the Southern course of action. Echols, apparently a long-time friend of Washburn, mildly criticizes him for joining the Republican Party, predicts that the effect of Lincoln's election will be peaceful secession, and proposes some commercial realignments between the North and South.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

A. A. Echols letter to Governor Emory Washburn, MS 1151. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries.

General Notes

Cataloged as part of the Georgia Archives and Manuscripts Automated Access project: A Special Collections Gateway Program of the University Center in Georgia.

Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online as part of America's Turning Point: Documenting the Civil War Experience in Georgia.