The Courier uses the Georgia Historic Newspaper site housed at the University of Georgia to assemble history articles based on contemporary news reports.
From the formation of Cobb County in the 1830s until the end of the Civil War, the Marietta Advocate was the dominant newspaper in Cobb County. It ceased operations when U.S. General William Tecumseh Sherman occupied Atlanta and the region.
Late January in 1861 was a pivotal time for Georgia. A secession convention was organized on January 2 in response to the election of President Abraham Lincoln due to the abolitionist impulses of the early Republican Party.
The issue of slavery had reached a boiling point. It had already resulted in armed conflict in Kansas and Missouri between opponents and proponents of slavery in the years from 1854 to 1859.
On January 19, 1861, the convention voted for Georgia to leave the United States.
The Marietta Advocate on January 22, 1861, reported a celebratory mood among proponents of secession in Marietta. The first was a report that the signing of the secession proclamation was underway:
The Federal Union of Saturday states that the ordinance of secession was to be enrolled and to be signed at noon on yesterday, Monday. A resolution was adopted by the Convention to continue in operation for the present, all existing postal arrangements, Custom House officers, revenue laws, and all other civil officers and offices as heretofore.
The second was a brief article about a delegate from Cobb County, George Rice, who had been elected before the convention:
Hon. Geo. D. Rice.
Besides other favors received from Judge Rice, one of the Delegates in the Georgia Convention from Cobb County, we are indebted to him for news of the latest action of that body. The extra of the Federal Union which he has kindly sent us contains the vote on the passage of the secession ordinance. This vote we will give in our next issue.
We are gratified at…
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