Benjamin L. Jordan

Benjamin L. Jordan

• Benjamin L. Jordan was born circa 1800 in Baldwin County, Georgia.
• He married Emily E. Sanford, daughter of Jesse H. Sanford and Martha Goodwyn Mitchell, on 9 April 1823 in Baldwin County, Georgia.
• The following appeared on 3 November 1836 in the Macon Georgia Telegraph: (from the Federal Union) The letter from Mr. Forsyth, which we have permitted to publish, is of the most conclusive character, and ought to dispel every distrust of Mr. Van Buren, which may have been felt by any southern man. Several citizens of Baldwin, old acquaintances of Mr. Forsyth, and each of whom owns a large number of slaves, believed that Mr. Forsyth would be able to inform them with certainty, whether their estates would be endangered by the election of Mr. Van Buren to the presidency, or whether the South would have reason to feel safe under his administration. To their enquiries Mr. Forsyth gives explicit and satisfactory answers. We have two remarks to make on this testimony. /P/ 1st. There has been a very close intimacy between Mr. Forsyth and Mr. Van Buren. The feelings, intentions and plans of Mr. Van Buren are better known to Mr. Forsyth, we believe, than to any other man. The Secretary of State is well acquainted with the subject, in relation to which he testifies. /P/ 2d. Mr. Forsyth is a southern man, and a gentleman of such firm and elevated character, that we may feel assured his opinions are well founded, and his statements strictly true. /P/ We believe that no rational and candid man will question the truth of his statements, or reject the opinions which he has formed of Mr. Van Buren's course in relation to the abolitionists. This letter gives us an assurance in which we may safely rest, that Mr. Van Buren is a friend of the South; and that when elected to the Presidency, the measures of his administration will conform to the wishes and interests of the South. As a northern man, his liberal, and enlightened, and patriotic couse on a question which involves the vital interests of the South, gives us a certain and glorious pledge of the perpetuity of the Federal Union. /P/ Milledgeville, October 28, 1836. Hon. John Forsyth, Dear Sir: The position which you have occupied for many years leads us to believe that you are well informed in a matter deeply interesting to us as owners of slaves, and in relation to which our neighbors and friends, with the whole South, feel intense solicitude. It has been said, by some, that Mr. Van Buren is not opposed to the schemes of the abolitionists; that his election to the presidency will encourage these fanatics to prosecute their nefarious attempts; and that under his administration the rights of the slave-holding States will not be safe. On this most important subject we are anxious to obtain the best lights within our reach; and we believe that your official relations to Mr. Van Buren, and the long continued and very intimate intercourse which we understand that you have had with him, will enable you to give us more correct information than we can obtain from any other source. We request that you will state to us, what you believe to be the feelings and intentions of Mr. Van Buren, in relation to the abolition question; and, if his administration may be expected to conform to the wishes and interests of the South, on this vital subject. /P/ With high regard, your fellow citizens, Thomas Moughon, Farish Carter, Green H. Jordan, William Sanford, Benjamin S. Jordan. /P/ Sparta, October 29th, 1836. Thomas Moughon, Farish Carter, Green H. Jordan, William Sanford, Benjamin S. Jordan, Esqs. Gentlemen: Your letter of yesterday's date, was put into my hands this morning as I was about to leave Milledgeville for this place. It was therefore out of my power to reply to it before this afternoon. My intimate acquaintance and constance intercourse with Mr. Van Buren, for more than ten years, enable me to state to you, that his feelings on the abolition question are similar to those of every honest man south of the Potomac, who holds an unqualified abhorrence the designs of the abolitionists, and the means pursued to accomplish them. He has faithfully exerted his personal and political influence to thwart them heretofore; and, I am sure, his intentions are ever to do so. If I had the smallest reason to doubt, that, if elected to the Presidency, his administration would not conform in this matter to the wishes and interests of our State, he should receive, notwithstanding the personal relations between us, my most inveterate opposition. No one deserves to be supported here, whose opinions on that vital question are /P/ I am, gentlemen, with great respect, your obedient servant. John Forsyth. [It is an educated guess that this Benjamin S. Jordan and Green's brother Benjamin L. are one and the same, and that in one case or the other the middle initial has been mistranscribed.]

• Last Edited: 28 Feb 2009