January 8, 1861 dated letter signed "W.C Hayden." Reads in small part: “...a fire broke out in the large drug store beneath the Register Office and so fierce was the wrath of the fire-fiend that not a single article was saved from the office. Everything gone! Books, papers, accounts, &c. and one of the best country printing offices I ever saw....And on Christmas day I found myself the possessor of one shirt, and just one complete suit of clothes. And to make matters worse, merchants who, before the fire, were willing to credit me to any amount, shut down on me...Yesterday we had our election for members of the State Convention. Last November Breckenridge had 91 majority in this parish over Bell. On yesterday the co-operation candidates received 176 maj. over the secession candidates. The planters are afraid of secession. They have the benefit of a heavy protective tariff...which they can not hope for in a Southern Confederacy...At all events the action of the Convention must be submitted to the people for ratification or rejection...” On January 26, 1861, the delegates to Louisiana’s secession convention meeting in Baton Rouge voted 113 to 17 to secede from the Union.



4pp. Condition as show, the content written here is just a small portion of the letter.



[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Paper Ephemera, Secession]