The President.--Gentlemen of the Convention, in pursuance of a resolution adopted by your body, I now introduce to you the Hon. Fulton Anderson, Commissioner on behalf of the State of Mississippi.

Mr. Anderson, after a graceful acknowledgment of the reception, said he intended to detain the Convention but a few minutes, for the purpose of briefly discharging the duty imposed on him by his State, and would then yield the floor to the Commissioners from Georgia and South Carolina, States older and more distinguished, and having a more ancient claim than the State he represented.--They would present more conspicuously than be could the causes which operated on the States which have recently taken steps in vindication of their rights.

In the name of the people of Mississippi, he expressed sentiments of admiration and esteem for the ancient and renowned Commonwealth of Virginia. Nothing that concerned her honor failed to create a deep interest in his State. He recognized in Virginia the leader in the great struggle for independence, as well as in the great work which united the people in the adoption of a Constitution. He alluded to the unexampled munificence of Virginia in the bestowal upon the Government of that great Territory which had become the seat of empire, but which, he regretted to say, was the seat of much that was hostile to Virginia's rights. When his State was compelled to server her connexion with the Government, it was with the hope of being joined with Virginia at no distant day, in a Union under happier auspices. If doomed to disappointment, it would be a source of infinite regret to his people.

He did not design, in whatever he might say of the enemies of our institutions, to include that great body of conservative people at the North who had manfully stood by us. He should ever remember with gratitude their struggles to maintain the Union as it was governed by our fathers. His remarks would apply to those who have persistently assailed Southern rights and Southern honor.

On the 29th of November, the Legislature of Mississippi, by a unanimous vote, called a Convention of the people of the State, to take into consideration their relations with the Federal Government, and adopt such measures of protection and redress as the circumstances might demand. The Legislature also adopted resolutions setting forth a catalogue of vevancis, and suggesting such remedies as the people ought to adopt. These resolutions did not grow out of the fact that a Northern man was elected to the Presidency, and that the South was to be excluded from all there in the government, but out of the fact that the North had declared war upon our institutions, and a purpose to destroy them.

The Convention assembled at Jackson on the 7th of January, and on the 9th, by an overwhelming majority, proceeded to adopt an ordinance of secession, by which Mississippi dissolved her connection with those people who had dishonored her, without the hope expectation, or wish of ever being restated, and with a purpose to hold them as her enemies in war, but in peace her friends. Another clause in the ordinance expressed her wish to form a Union with all those States which might secede, upon the basis of the Constitution of the United States.

As early as the 10th of February, 1860, the Legislature had adopted a resolution in effect that the election of a President by the votes of one section, upon the ground that there is in irrepressible conflict between free and slave labor, and of an avowed hostility to the South, would justify the South in taking measures of consultation, and in proposing a remedy. The North had ample warning that it was through their own reckless folly and madness that the Federal Union would be shattered. But in defiance of this, and of evidence accumulated from a thousand other sources, they proceeded to nominate a candidate, who, though not the most distinguished among them, was still a true representative of their principles of hostility to Southern institutions. The speaker then reviewed the acts of the Black Republican party, alluding to their avowals of war upon the institution of slavery, leading to its eventual abolition in the States themselves. As a part of the history of the controversy, he read from a speech of Lincoln in 1858, quoting his opinion that the slavery agitation would never cease till a crisis was reached and passed; that the Government could not permanently endure while half slave and half free; and that he did not believe the house would ever be divided, but expected it would eventually be all free or all slave.

This was the avowed principle of the party who elected a President by a large majority in the free States. In defiance of all the purposes for which the Government was founded instead of protecting all, it was to become our for and trample our rights and sacred honor beneath its iron heel. We, the descendants of the Revolutionary patriots, were expected to bend our necks to receive the yoke, and were expected to solace ourselves with the land delusion that the foe would some day cause its hostilities and that all would be well. We, of Mississippi, are no longer under that delusion. The song of the siren is no longer in our cars. We have finally made up our minds to preserve our rights and our honor-- to take our destiny in our own hands, and never surrender it to our implacable foes.

The speaker then alluded to the outrage on the soil of Virginia; when, in an hour of fancied security and supposed peace, this Commonwealth. distinguished for her unwavering fealty to the Constitution, was made the seem of a foray by ruffians from among our national enemies of the North, to light up the fine of insurrection, and give up the wives and children of the citizens to the assassin's knife. It is true the expedition failed; the slaves proved loyal the dignity of the State was exonerated, and the criminals forfeited their lives. But it had no effect on the party at the North now about to be inaugurated into power. He had no purpose to arouse the feelings of his hearers by his reference to the John Brown raid, but spoke of it as one of the effects of misplaced confidence; to show that it is the principle of the North to war upon the Southern people; and to warn the people of Virginia of what they must expect when the party shall have fully established its dominion over them.

These were some of the cause which had impelled the State of Mississippi to take her Destiny in her own hands. She had clung to the Union long after its obligations had been violated under the fond hope that her rights would be restored under the Constitution.--Long and vainly had she hoped that every section of the Confederacy would recognize the rights of all, and that they might continue together. Could we have believed the evil temporary, we might still have hopes; but the present state of things is the sure result of the growth of false teachings in the Northern section of the Confederacy.

He then gave a history of the Abolition aggression, beginning with the Missouri controversy, and read the language of Jefferson, 40 years ago, showing that he regarded that as the knell of the Union. Then traced it through subsequent years of disregard of constitutional obligations, until it terminated in the irrepressible conflict, of which a Black Republican President and his party were about to reap the benefit. But the South could place herself beyond its power. He did not mean to argue the question of the right of secession. That question had, with his people, passed beyond the field of argument. If the right be not in the Constitution,

The President.--Gentlemen of the Convention — In further execution of the order of the day, I introduce to you the Hon. Henry L. Benning, Commissioner on the part of the State of Georgia.

Mr. Benning said he had been appointed by the Convention of the State of Georgia to present her ordinance of secession, and to invite Virginia, through this Convention, to join Georgia and the other seceded States in forming a Southern Confederacy. This was the whole extent of his mission. He had no power to make or to receive promises. Still, a proper respect for this Convention required that he should explain the reasons which induced Georgia to take the step of secession. He would, therefore, lay before them some facts and considerations in favor of the acceptance of the invitation by Virginia.

What were the reasons for Georgia's secession? A deep and settled conviction, on her part, that a separation from the North was the only thing that could prevent the abolition of her slavery. This was the main cause. He maintained that it was true, that unless there was such a separation slavery would be finally abolished in the South. In the first place, the North hates slavery — hates it willingly, and hates it intentionally. An administration was about to be inaugurated founded upon this hate. To satisfy any mind that might doubt this proposition, he then read a few sentences from a speech delivered by Lincoln, in October, 1858, wherein he said that he always hated slavery as much as any Abolitionist; that he was always an old line Whig; and that if he was in Congress he would vote for the abolition of slavery.

These were pregnant sentences. Hatred of slavery as extreme as hatred can exist. His political principle is that his action against slavery is not to be restrained by the Constitution of the United States, even as interpreted by the Supreme Court. This is the sentiment of the chosen leader of the Republican party. Can you doubt that it is entertained by every solitary man of that party? He is the representative man — his sentiments are the sentiments of his party — his principles are their principles. It is true that the Black Republican party hates slavery, and the Black Republican majority in the North is equivalent to the whole, for the voice of the minority is drowned when the majority is permanent. The part is so deeply seated in the North that it cannot be overthrown. It has the press, the pulpit, the school- houses, the Legislatures, the State Governments, the Magistrates, the Constables — in fact, all official life — and it now has the General Government. In addition, it has an inexhaustible reserve to fall back upon and recruit from — a reserve that believes slavery is a moral and social evil. It is also in alliance with the tariff, internal improvement and Pacific Railroad schemes. It cannot be overthrown. You might as well try to lift a mountain out of its bed and pitch it into the sea.

But suppose the party were overcome — how long would the victory last? The fragments might get into a majority — but the Republican party, he argued, would soon again get the power, and come down upon its opponents like an avalanche, crushing them by its weight. The Republican party cannot be put down. It is to be the permanent dominant party at the North, and thus we were authorized to conclude that the North hates slavery. The whole people there regard it as a moral and social evil, and in the course of events, it would merge from passive into active hatred. In the past, the North invariably exerted against slavery the whole amount of power which it had to exert.--They abolished it in the magnificent empire which Virginia presented them in 1787, and in every State and Territory North of 36,30; then endeavored to put the Wilmot Proviso on all other Territories of the Union, and succeeded in Washington and Oregon. They had taken all that was acquired by the Mexican war, and appropriated it to the free country. They do all they can to make negroes free — maltreat their pursuers, and make raids to murder all classes and sexes; and when the chief perpetrator is caught and punished, half the North goes into mourning. If any of the perpetrators escape, they are shielded by the law. This is what they have done against slavery — they have always done what they could to put it under the ban in Christendom.

We had a right to argue from the past to the future. If the North has done all it could in the past, so it will in the future, and if it can, will abolish slavery in the States.

The speaker alluded to the fact that the North is constantly acquiring the power to abolish slavery by the acquisition of new States. The public territory is practically Northern territory, and every State that comes in will be a free State. Kansas should satisfy every one of that. These additions will go very near to bringing the power of the North high enough to change the Constitution so as to suit their own views. There is also a process going on by which some of the slave States are becoming free States. In some the slave property is on the decrease.--The census shows this to be the case in Delaware and Maryland, and in other States on the same parallel the relative increase and decrease is against the slave population. The anti-slavery feeling is so predominant in the North, that owners of slaves in these States feel that their property is doomed, and they haste to get rid of it. Thus it goes down lower, until it all gets into the pocket. Under the weight now pressing on this property, it is bound to go into the Cotton States, and he feared the day was not distant when they would be the only slave States.

The North obtaining the power, will amend the Constitution and abolish slavery — and say if the masters resist they shall be hung for it. The North is acquiring this power, as the past has shown; and if causes are allowed to operate as they now operate, slavery is to be abolished in Georgia and the other Cotton States.

The speaker alluded at length to the eventual result of anti-slavery aggressions, and argued that if the Black Republicans entered into any compromise, recognizing slavery South of any line of latitude, it would be broken; for the people of the North regard slavery as an agreement with death, and a compact with the devil; and to violate it, would be a part of their religion. They are entirely beyond the pale of contract making, and hold it to be right to violate anything that violates their higher law. He contended that the South could get no remedy for this disease in the Union. A separation from the North would be a complete remedy.

The Personal Liberty Bills and the election of Lincoln had much to do with the action of Georgia. The Personal Liberty bills were direct, deliberate infractions of the Constitution. They gave the South the right to say she would no longer be bound by the Constitution if she chose to say so. A bargain broken on one side is broken on all sides. The election of Lincoln was the occasion Georgia chose to select.