Yancey, William Lowndes, 1814–63, American leader of secession secession, in political science, formal withdrawal from an association by a group discontented with the actions or decisions of that association. The term is generally used to refer to withdrawal from a political entity; such withdrawal usually occurs when a
..... Click the link for more information. , b. Warren co., Ga. Admitted (1834) to the bar in Greenville, S.C., he soon moved to Alabama. There he became an outstanding lawyer, was elected to the state house of representatives (1841) and the state senate (1843), and served in Congress (1844–46). In response to the Wilmot Proviso Wilmot Proviso, 1846, amendment to a bill put before the U.S. House of Representatives during the Mexican War; it provided an appropriation of $2 million to enable President Polk to negotiate a territorial settlement with Mexico.
..... Click the link for more information. , Yancey wrote (1848) the Alabama Platform, which demanded of Congress the positive protection of slavery in the territories. Yancey's doctrine was adopted by several Southern states under his militant leadership and soon became the creed of the whole South. As extreme a "fire-eater" as William Lloyd Garrison was an abolitionist, he even advocated the reopening of the African slave trade. After the Compromise of 1850 he retired into the background, but the events of 1860 once more brought him to the fore. At the national convention of the Democratic party in Charleston, he expressed the Southern demands in one of his greatest speeches, and when the Northern delegates, led by Stephen A. Douglas, refused to accept the "Yancey platform," practically all his Southern colleagues followed him out of the convention. Yancey wrote the Alabama ordinance of secession. After the organization of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, then only provisional president, sent Yancey, a potential rival for the permanent office, to Europe as a Confederate commissioner. Failing to secure recognition from England and France, he returned in 1862, was elected to the Confederate senate, and served there until his death.

Bibliography

See biography by J. W. DuBose (1892).

Yancey, William Lowndes

(born , Aug. 10, 1814, Warren county, Ga., U.S.—died July 27, 1863, Montgomery, Ala.) U.S. politician. He was admitted to the bar and served as editor of the Greenville Mountaineer. During the nullification crisis, he took a firm Unionist stand. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1844–46), and in response to the Wilmot Proviso he drafted the Alabama Platform (1848), which asserted slaveholders' rights to take their chattel with them to the new territories. He later added secession to the platform. He helped create the League of United Southerners (1858) and supported the Southern Democrats in their nomination of John C. Breckinridge for president (1860). He drafted Alabama's secession ordinance and served in the Confederate government (1861–63).

Yancey, William Lowndes (1814–63) U.S. representative, diplomat; born in Ogeechee, Ga. He was a leading Alabama lawyer who resigned after an unsatisfying congressional term (Dem., 1844–46) to promote his unyielding views on states' rights and secession across the South; he is largely credited with shaping southern public opinion to favor secession. He died in office as a Confederate senator (1862–63).