Person:Samuel Winfrey (8)

WINF: Y

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY. 305 From the Carrollton Democrat (Carrollton, Carroll Co., Missouri), June 8, 1861:

THE MEETING AT WINFREY'S GROVE

One of the largest neighborhood meetings ever held in Carroll county convened at Winfrey's Grove, at the place known as tile Rosebud Schoolhouse, about seven miles southeast of Carrollton, on Saturday, tile 1st June, to deliberate on the present aspect of the times. Notwithstanding the rain was pouring down, the crowd came in from all quarters, each man seeming determined to stand forth before the world as a defender of the old banner of Washington and Jackson, and to sustain the Union by which "nobody has ever been hurt." Several of tile old pioneers of the county were there. Men who reclaimed this county from the wild wilderness and have made it the garden of the State were there, with their sons and grandsons, all warm, ardent determined and resolved to oppose Secessionism, Abolitionism, or any other fanaticism that threatens the liberties of the people.When such men as Judge Hardwick, Turpin Thomas and Joseph Adkins, one of the heaviest slaveholders in the county--men, who have borne the hardships of the wilderness to improve the country and extend the area of civilization, while many of the present enemies of their country's flag were mewling and puking in the nursery; when men like these forget the infirmities of age, and ride through the storm and drenching rain to encourage their fellow men to stand by their flag and their Constitution, we hope their example will be followed throughout the entire State.The meeting was called to order by Samuel Winfrey, Esq. Whereupon Thomas Hardwick was chosen Chairman, and Turpin Thomas, Joseph Adkins, and John Gray, Vice Presidents, and Geo. W. Tatham, Secretary. The following committee was then appointed by the Chair to draft the solutions expressive of the sense of the meeting: Samuel Winfrey, E. H. Thomas, George Buckhart, James Gosnell and B. E. Kirgan.After the reading of the resolutions, Mr. John B. Hale, who had been invited to attend the meeting, and whose arrival through the drenching rain had been cheered by his multitude of warm friends, delivered a most excellent address. Among the many interesting topics, he noticed, in an especial manner, a certain fact, well known to every enlightened politician, who is posted in the history of the past, that the slavery question was not in any way connected with the secession of South Carolina. In her attempt at nullification or secession in' 39, the slavery question was never made the issue; it was then the Tariff, and the Tariff alone, that was the ground of her complaint! Gen. Jackson then wrote a letter to a friend in Georgia exposing the designs and machinations of South Carolina, in which he then predicted that the next time South Carolina would try to break up the Union, she would use, as a pretext, the slavery question. The real object of the Gulf States appears to be the creation of a great aristocratic Confederacy, wherein wealthy men, who own immense tracts of land, can control their tenantry and' the poor white men who are dependant on them. Mr. Hale next noticed the Military Bill, at some length and closed his remarks amid the cheers, of the meeting.WHEREAS, a crisis has now arrived that the people, the working people, by whose labors the state is supported in peace or war, should throw off the shackles of the~ party, and cease to lend ear to the exciting declamations of small politicians, but come out openly and declare their views to their fellow citizens. We therefore adopt the following resolutions as expressive of our views:Resolved, That instead of secession being a remedy for any real of fanciful evils Missouri is now suffering, it would be a certain mode of plunging us into all the horrors of civil war, and we believe, that as Providence has promising us abundant crops, our duty to out' God and our country, to our children and our neighbors, can be better performed by Missourians thronging to the harvest field and cutting down their crops than to the battle field to cut down their fellow citizens.Resolved, That we are proud of our state convention, recognizing in its deliberations a spirit of calmness and conservatism, which has earned for Missouri a higher reputation than any deliberative body that ever sat within her borders, and our delegate, ROBT. D. RAY, deserves our highest commendation.Resolved, That the late military bill passed by the legislature is, and ought to be, a dead letter, a disgrace to the statute book, and only to be preserved as a curiosity?, commemorative of the folly and excitement of the night in which it passed. We believe that the plea of a "big scare" is not sufficient justification of anybody' who voted for it.Resolved, That we most cordially disapprove the attempt made to burden the people of this county with a useless debt of ten thousand dollars, while other and wealthier' counties refused to give a dime.Resolved, That neutrality is the only policy Missouri should adopt, and Gens. Price and Harney deserve the warm regard of the people for their humane arrangement to preserve the public peace, and in these two gentlemen the adage is fully verified, that humanity is inseparable from bravery.'That while we pledge our lives and property to maintain all the institutions of Missouri, and especially her slave institution, we equally pledge to one another our aid and protection in the enjoyment of the sacred and unalienable right of opinion and speech, leaving the latter only to the restrictions of law, we heartily condemn all persecutions for opinions sake, holding that every law-abiding citizen of Missouri, whether born in the north or south, or in Europe, is bound to be protected in the enjoyment of his opinions by his fellow citizens here.Resolved, That we believe Missouri's interests are peculiar to herself, and she ought not to begin or controlled the least by the action of any other state north or south, and we repudiate that puerile sentimentality which causes some to think nothing is done right here unless it accords with tile action of the state from whence they come. We believe there is intelligence enough among the people of this state to carve out their own destiny without blindly following any other state, and particularly so while Missouri is differently circumstanced from any other state in America.

1. ↑ Ancestry On-Line Research
   Data Provided by Pat Steele, [Q:3], 26 Jun 2000, 2 files entitled "John Winfrey Lineage" and "Mary Turpin Li, neage". It is believed that much of the information in th, e files came from James Clifton winfrey's book "The Winfre, y Family in America".
2. ↑ Ancestry On-Line Research
   Data Provided by Pat Steele, [Q:3], 26 Jun 2000, 2 files entitled "John Winfrey Lineage" and "Mary Turpin Li, neage". It is believed that much of the information in th, e files came from James Clifton winfrey's book "The Winfre, y Family in America".
3. ↑ Ancestry On-Line Research
   Data Provided by Pat Steele, [Q:3], 26 Jun 2000, 2 files entitled "John Winfrey Lineage" and "Mary Turpin Li, neage". It is believed that much of the information in th, e files came from James Clifton winfrey's book "The Winfre, y Family in America".
4.   John Merrill. Merrill Family. (Downloaded from ancestry.com).