in the year of our Lord seventeen hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the constitution of the United States of America was assented to, ratified and adopted, and also all acts and parts of acts of the general assembly of this State, ratifying and adopting amendments to said constitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded and abrogated. AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America." Those favoring immediate secession were mainly influential cotton planters from central and southern Alabama, which included the key areas surrounding Montgomery and Mobile. Governor Moores order of the past week to seize U.S. forts and military installations was retroactively endorsed. Alabama and Arkansas did go a little beyond pure legalese in discussing some issues but nothing like a declaration of causes. We, the people of the State of Tennessee, waiving any expression of opinion as to the abstract doctrine of secession, but asserting the right, as a free and independent people, to alter, reform, or abolish our form of government in such manner as we think proper, do ordain and declare that all the laws and ordinances by which the State of Tennessee became a member of the Federal Union of the United States of America are hereby abrogated and annulled, and that all the rights, functions, and powers which by any of said laws and ordinances were conveyed to the Government of the United States, and to absolve ourselves from all the obligations, restraints, and duties incurred thereto; and do hereby henceforth become a free, sovereign, and independent State. Copyright 2023 The Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation. Alabama was the fourth state to secede from the Union on January 11, 1861. Be it further declared and Faust, Patricia L. (Patricia L. Faust ed.). The convention met in Tallahassee, Florida's capital, for seven days. Stop the Largest Rezoning in Orange County History, Grant Remembers the Surrender and Victory at Vicksburg, "Rejoicing Over the Proclamation" Primary Source Questions, A Brief Overview of the American Civil War, The Gathering Storm: The Secession Crisis. Ratified 23 Feb 1861 by a vote of 46,153 for and 14,747 against. Articles of secession, adopted December 24, 1860. Address. Learn about current events in historical perspective on our Origins site. Whereas, our honor and our duty to posterity demand that we shall not relinquish our own liberty and shall not abandon the right of our descendants and the world to the inestimable blessings of constitutional government: Therefore, One-stop destination for complete information on all trending topics related to Alabama state. Printed document of the State of Texas' Declaration of Secession from the United States of America. AN ORDINANCE To dissolve the Union between the State of Texas and the other States united under the Compact styled "the Constitution of the United States of America." The American Battlefield Trust and our members have saved more than 56,000 acres in 25 states! The President appointed as the Committe of Fifteen to prepare Ordinance of Secession: L. Q. C. Lamar, of Lafayette; A. M. Clayton, of Marshall; G. R. Clayton, of Lowndes; Alfred C. Holt, of Wilkinson; Wiley P. Harris, of Hinds; J. This page is not available in other languages. That so much of the first section of the seventh article of the constitution of this State as requires members of the Legislature and all officers, executive and judicial, to take an oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of the United States be, and the same is hereby, abrogated and annulled. Rebecca Beatrice Brooks May 14, 2012 No Comments. We do further declare and ordain, That the State of Louisiana hereby resumes all rights and powers heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States of America; that her citizens are absolved from all allegiance to said Government; and that she is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which appertain to a free and independent State. The Secession Convention met in Tallahassee on January 3, 1861, and passed, on January 10, the Ordinance of Secession. The powers of the government of the State of Alabama shall be divided into three distinct departments; and each of them confided to a separate body of magistracy, to-wit: those which are legislative to one; those which are executive, to another; and those which are judicial to another. The work of the historian is based on the documents and evidence left by the actors of historical events. And be it further resolved, That the President of this Convention, be and is hereby instructed to transmit forthwith a copy of the foregoing Preamble, Ordinance, and Resolutions to the Governors of the several States named in said resolutions. the Alabama Secession Convention. Alabamainfohub.com provides information through various online resources and not liable to any kind of error or oversight. Florida's Ordinance of Secession . After the state of Alabama seceded from the Union in January of 1861, a small county within the state, known as Winston County, disagreed with the decision and tried to secede from the South. Thousands of pro-Union voters voted for a secession convention aiming that it should fail. Over the next few weeks I will post the documents of secession (with annotations) issued by the eleven Confederate states and two border states who ultimately did not secede. Five of the Confederate states did not write elaborate explanations of secession, issuing only the legal documents dissolving their connection to the United States. The Crittendon Compromise (1860) USA Census 1860. Last edited on 28 December 2022, at 21:49, regarded by the Confederacy as having seceded, virtually eliminate state government control, people strongly rejected secession and favored the Union, Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union, List of signers of the Georgia Ordinance of Secession, Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States, "Secession Ordinances of 13 Confederate States", "Confederate Arizona had a population of less than 13,000 as tabulated by Census of 1860", "Map showing the distribution of the slave population of the southern states of the United States. Summary. approve such purpose, in order to frame a provisional as well as permanent We the people of the State of Georgia in Convention assembled do declare and ordain and it is hereby declared and ordained that the ordinance adopted by the State of Georgia in convention on the 2nd day of Jany. The government of South Carolina declared its causes for seceding on December 24, 1860, four days after it became the first state to issue a formal ordinance of secession on December 20, 1860. In doing so, members of the state's secession convention felt it their duty to tell the world why. Many of these documents are very clear that slavery was central to their decision to leave the United States. This ordinance shall be submitted to the people of Texas for their ratification or rejection, by the qualified voters, on the 23rd day of February, 1861, and unless rejected by a majority of the votes cast, shall take effect and be in force on and after the 2d day of March, A.D. 1861.PROVIDED, that in the Representative District of El Paso said election may be held on the 18th day of February, 1861. Diehards hoping to widen this pro-secession majority tried not to alienate the moderates; when William L. Yancey delivered a speech calling anyone opposing secession a traitor, secessionist leader Thomas H. Watts quickly followed up with a speech downplaying such talk. Every delegate was a white male owning, on average, 10 enslaved people. ORDINANCE OF SECESSION After four days of debate, enough moderates had joined the secessionist camp to make the final vote 61 to 39. AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of Mississippi and other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America." Adopted by the convention of Virginia April 17,1861 ratified by a vote of 132,201 to 37,451 on 23 May 1861. Adopted January 11, 1861. Secession process in the US Civil War The first seven seceding states, all of the Deep South, were motivated mainly by two factors: the election in November 1860 of President Lincoln, who had no support among Southern voters, and the direct threat to slavery his election posed. The original document is housed in the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina. Of the 39 delegates who opposed leaving the Union, 15 signed the secession resolution. It was one of the original seven states to form the Confederacy on February 8, 1861. The people of Virginia in their ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, adopted by them in convention on the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under said Constitution were derived from the people of the United States and might be resumed whensoever the same should be perverted to their injury and oppression, and the Federal Government having perverted said powers not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern slave-holding States: Sec 2. Sec. Despite Missouri and Kentucky remaining within the Union, thousands from both states embraced secession by choosing to fight for the Confederacy. I was able to analyze four secession documents written by states: South Carolina . Join us online July 24-26! His election caused the first seven states to secede and form the Confederacy. And as it is the desire and purpose of WHEREAS, The Federal Government has failed to accomplish the purposes of the compact of union between these States, in giving protection either to the persons of our people upon an exposed frontier, or to the property of our citizens, and Adherents of the Union side in the Civil War regarded secession as illegal by any means and President Abraham Lincoln, drawing in part on the legacy of President Andrew Jackson, regarded it as his job to preserve the Union by force if necessary. Two remaining Southern states, Delaware and Maryland, rejected secession and were not regarded by either side as having seceded. We, the people of the State of Tennessee, waiving any expression of opinion as to the abstract doctrine of secession, but asserting the right, as a . The new state contained 24 counties that had ratified Virginia's secession ordinance.[3]. Document to the people of Alabama from thirty-three men at the 1861 secession convention explaining why they did not sign the Ordinance of Secession. The ordinance declared Florida to be "a sovereign and independent nation." On April 13, the convention ratified the constitution adopted by the Confederate States of America. Z. George, of Carroll; S. J. Gholson, of Monroe; E. H. Sanders, of Attala; J. L. Alcorn, of Coahoma; The Constitution is the foundational governing document of the State of Texas, second only to the U.S. Constitution. Appomattox Courthouse. In Missouri, the state government called a convention whose members disfavored secession. Sign up to receive the latest information on the American Battlefield Trust's efforts to blaze The Liberty Trail in South Carolina. The convention adjourned on April 27, 1861. A state's sovereign right to secede. Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, For the North, the primary objective of the Civil War was to preserve the Union and emancipation only became an official cause of the war with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. in history with a Certificate in Revolutionary Era Studies from Siena College in 2010. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Be it resolved by the people of Alabama in Convention assembled, That States and people of the Northern section, is a political wrong of so insulting a document similar to the United States Constitution, but with greater stress on the autonomy of each . Sec. While secession and the lead up to the Civil War were very complex, conflict over slavery was certainly central to the Souths decision to leave the Union. On January 11, 1861, a convention of elected delegates passed an ordinance withdrawing Alabama from the United States. Secession Ordinances of 13 Confederate States. The causes mentioned within these documents include the threat of Lincolns election (as a sectional candidate and perceived abolitionists), hostility from the Northern states and the abolition movement, the argument that the North was no longer upholding the mutual contract of the Constitution (particularly in terms of right to property and the protection of slavery), conflict over slavery in the western territories as the United States expanded in the nineteenth century, and direct defenses of racial slavery. the several States named in said resolutions. The secession convention had 69 delegates representing Florida's 36 counties. That the people of the States of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri, be and are hereby invited to meet the people of the State of Alabama, by their Delegates, in Convention, on the fourth day of February, A. D. 1861, at the city of Montgomery, in the State of Alabama, for the purpose of consulting with each other as to the most effectual mode of securing concerted and harmonious action in whatever measures may be deemed most desirable for our common peace and security. Alabama, in Convention assembled, That the State of Alabama now withdraws, and They wanted to make clear that their allegiance to the state while explaining their reservations about seceding from the Union. The other . However, President James Buchanan, in his State of the Union Address of December 3, 1860, stated that the Union rested only upon public opinion and that conciliation was its only legitimate means of preservation; President Thomas Jefferson also had suggested in 1816, after his presidency but in official correspondence, that secession of some states might be desirable. Date:1861. 11 Jan. 1861. SEC. is hereby withdrawn from the Union known as "the United States of America," and AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of Louisiana and other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America." ill go w the Bonny Blue or the Rep of AL secession flag but not the southern cross, unless you know something i dont know. Facsimile of the 1861 Ordinance of Secession signed by 293 delegates to the. from West Virginia University in 2012 and her B.A. Whereas, the election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin to the offices of President and Vice President of the United States of America, by a sectional party, avowedly hostile to the domestic institutions and to the peace and security of the people of the State of Alabama, preceded by many and dangerous infractions of the Constitution of the United States by many of the States and people of the northern section, is a political wrong of so insulting and menacing a character as to justify the people of the State of Alabama in the adoption of prompt and decided measures for their future peace and security; therefore.