2. the people of Alabama to meet the slaveholding States of the South, who may Learn about current events in historical perspective on our Origins site. Facsimile of the 1861 Ordinance of Secession signed by 293 delegates to the. be a Sovereign and Independent State. AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union now existing between the State of Arkansas and the other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America." The new Republican Party was a purely Northern party with a platform that was anti-slavery. Most of the ordinances of secession were straight-forward documents referring to a state's ratification of the Constitution then withdrawing the state from it, as well as proclaiming its sovereignty, etc. The convention adjourned on April 27, 1861. They did so in order to protect the institution of slavery. approve such purpose, in order to frame a provisional as well as permanent Union military intervention quickly restored Union control, first in St. Louis, then throughout nearly the whole state. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. In Tennessee as in Arkansas, during the secession crisis of 1861 the support for immediate secession was weak. July 26, 2018. All but three signed. Compiled with the long-term conflicts that had accrued over the past decades, many Southerners perceived Lincoln as an abolitionist bent on destroying slavery and a president who only represented the interests of the North. 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." The University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections, United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865. Stay up-to-date on the American Battlefield Trust's battlefield preservation efforts, travel tips, upcoming events, history content and more. Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window). Sec. ________________________________________MISSOURI And we do further hereby declare and ordain, That the State of Arkansas hereby resumes to herself 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 of the United States, and that she is in full possession and exercise of all the rights and sovereignty which appertain to a free and independent State. ________________________________________MISSISSIPPI The Alabama Secession January 11, 2021 WalterCoffey Alabama, Secession 2 comments Three days before the Alabama State Convention was scheduled to begin at Montgomery, Governor Andrew B. Moore issued orders for state troops to seize all Federal forts and military facilities in Alabama. The secessionists were led primarily by Democrats, including Senator Clingman, Governor John W. Ellis (1820-1861), Congressman Thomas Ruffin (1820-1863), and former Congressman William S. Ashe (1814-1862). Articles of secession, adopted December 24, 1860. The demand was followed by an offer: I am instructed also to notify you, that you have the option to continue in command of the said revenue cutter, under the authority of the State of Alabama, in the exercise of the same duties that you have hitherto rendered to the United States, and at the same compensation, reporting to this office and to the Governor of the State. The captain accepted, and by months end, Alabamans had expelled most Federal personnel from their state. This act was passed by a rump legislature called into session in Neosho, Mo., by Gov. To dissolve the Union between the State of Alabama and other States united under the compact styled "The Constitution of the United States of America.". In addition, Kathleen was a seasonal interpreter at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park from 2010-2014 and has worked on various other publications and projects. And as it is the desire and purpose of Montgomery, Alabama. to secede. ________________________________________GEORGIA Sent to referendum 6 May 1861 by the legislature, and approved by the voters by a vote of 104,471 to 47,183 on 8 June 1861. by a sectional party, avowedly hostile to the domestic institutions and to the They wanted to make clear that their allegiance to the state while explaining their reservations about seceding from the Union. . Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected president. Top of page It even led to a sharp exchange at a recent meeting of the Alabama Political Science Association. An Ordinance of Secession was the name given to multiple resolutions[1] drafted and ratified in 1860 and 1861, at or near the beginning of the Civil War, by which each seceding Southern state or territory formally declared secession from the United States of America. Only an even less influential rump convention purported to secede. White Georgians, along with other white southerners, disagreed over whether secession was a constitutional right (embodied in the national compact that grew out of . Be it resolved by the people of Alabama in Convention assembled, 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 4th 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. ________________________________________VIRGINIA Acknowledging the moderates contribution to the cause, diehards such as Yancey were passed over as delegates to the southern convention in favor of former Unionists such as David Peter Lewis. . And be it further resolved, That the President of this Convention be, and he 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. hereby withdrawn from said Government, and are hereby resumed and vested in the The Constitution is the foundational governing document of the State of Texas, second only to the U.S. Constitution. The troops then confronted the revenue cutter U.S.S. All Texas laws and regulations must comply with the Constitution or risk being invalidated by the state courts. The force of events moved very quickly upon the election of Lincoln. of Alabama, by their Delegates, in Convention, on the 4th day of February, A.D., 2. Third. Adopted and passed in open convention on the 6th day of May, A.D. 1861. 1861, at the city of Montgomery, in the State of Alabama, for the purpose of Exploring the most important 55 months in American history, Three days before the Alabama State Convention was scheduled to begin at Montgomery, Governor Andrew B. Moore issued orders for state troops to seize all Federal forts and military facilities in Alabama. Civil Discourse: A Blog of the Civil War Era. President of this Convention, be and is hereby instructed to transmit forthwith Texas, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina all issued additional documents, usually referred to as the "Declarations of Causes," which explain their decision to leave the Union. Kentucky and Missouri, be and are hereby invited to meet the people of the State In a unanimous vote on December 20, 1860, the state seceded from the Union. In Missouri, the state government called a convention whose members disfavored secession. Four months later, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana seceded as well. Prior to 1861, the people of Tennessee had resisted secessionist movements, believing that the Constitution and Union of the United States were beneficial and should be preserved. Sec. The American Battlefield Trust and our members have saved more than 56,000 acres in 25 states! 1861, Library of Congress Act I documents (Attached) (From "Alabama Will Secede," "Alabama Out of the Union," "The Secession Jubilee," and "Alabama's Ordinance of Secession." The first three are articles published in the Montgomery Advertiser. Secession had been seriously mentioned as a political option at least as far back as the Missouri crisis of 1819-21, and threats to disrupt the Union occurred in every sectional crisis from the nullification era (1828-33) onward. Beginning with South Carolina in December 1860, eleven Southern states and one territory[2] both ratified an ordinance of secession and effected de facto secession by some regular or purportedly lawful means, including by state legislative action, special convention, or popular referendum, as sustained by state public opinion and mobilized military force. This page was last edited on 29 December 2017, at 18:34. Beyond Virginia, effective secession in most of a state could critically destabilize or virtually eliminate state government control over a region where people strongly rejected secession and favored the Union, such as East Tennessee and other areas. We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the "United States of America," is hereby dissolved. Whereas the Government of the United States, in the possession and under the control of a sectional party, has wantonly violated the compact originally made between said Government and the State of Missouri, by invading with hostile armies the soil of the State, attacking and making prisoners the militia while legally assembled under the State laws, forcibly occupying the State capitol, and attempting through the instrumentality of domestic traitors to usurp the State government, seizing and destroying private property, and murdering with fiendish malignity peaceable citizens, men, women, and children, together with other acts of atrocity, indicating a deep-settled hostility toward the people of Missouri and their institutions; and These widely held grievances in the South were long-term causes of secession, developing over the decades between the American Revolution and 1860. delegated to the Government of the United States of America, be and they are Alabama's secession document blames the vagaries of the threat of the Lincoln Administration, rather than stating the defense of slavery outright. These two states remained within the Union, but were regarded by the Confederacy as having seceded. Secession Acts of the Thirteen Confederate States. The document contains the reasons for secession laid out by delegates of the people of Texas in Convention, and includes the names of those delegates, with O. M. Roberts, President, at the top of the list. The Richmond Daily Dispatch reported: The forts contained 78,000 stand of arms, 1,500 boxes of powder, 300,000 rounds of musket cartridges, and other munitions of war.. View 06.05 history.docx from HISTORY 10 at Pike County High School. A second resolution passed that enabled the remaining 24 opponents to sign a document acknowledging Alabamas decision without taking part in it. On March 12 the Alabama secession convention debated and ratified the document by a vote of 87 to 5; on March 16 the Georgia convention read and ratified the Constitution by a unanimous vote of 260 to 0; on March 21, after some political maneuvering, Louisiana ratified 94 to 10; on March 23 the Texas Secession Convention approved the . Be it ordained, That we do hereby forever sever our connection with the Government of the United States, and in the name of the people we do hereby declare Kentucky to be a free and independent State, clothed with all power to fix her own destiny and to secure her own rights and liberties. An act declaring the political ties heretofore existing between the State of Missouri and the United States of America dissolved. [citation needed]. Annotation: The seceded states drafted the following ordinances of secession that severed their connection with the Federal Union in an attempt to preserve state rights and their different cultures. The people of the State of Mississippi, in convention assembled, do ordain and declare, and it is hereby ordained and declared, as follows, to wit:Section 1. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND ORDINANCE dissolving the federal relations between the State of Tennessee and the United States of America. State by state, conventions were held, and the Confederacy was . In Missouri and Kentucky, attempted secession was belated, severely disrupted, lacked sufficient popular support, and failed. Wanted to withdraw from the Union immediately after Abraham Lincoln was elected. Debate and compromise over the institution of slavery happened as early as the founding of the nation and the Constitutional Convention, and in the antebellum period conflict and compromise over the issue occurred regularly. The First American President: Setting the Precedent, African Americans During the Revolutionary War, Help Save 820 Acres at Five Virginia Battlefields, Save 343 Acres at FIVE Battlefields in FOUR Western Theater States, Save 42 Historic Acres at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Phase Three of Gaines Mill-Cold Harbor Saved Forever Campaign, An Unparalleled Preservation Opportunity at Gettysburg Battlefield. Alabama Secession Banner of 1861 (U.S.) Last modified: 2012-02-11 by rick wyatt Keywords: . The next four seceding states, further north, also were motivated by the same two factors, but a third and decisive factor was the Federal policy of coercion, or using military force to preserve the Union by compelling the earlier seceding states to submit. The first was the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. Secession. 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. The secession resolution cited the election of ABRAHAM LINCOLN by a sectional party, avowedly hostile to the domestic institutions, and the peace and security of the state, as reason for secession. The controlling majority of the Federal Government, under various pretences and disguises, has so administered the same as to exclude the citizens of the Southern States, unless under odious and unconstitutional restrictions, from all the immense territory owned in common by all the States on the Pacific Ocean, for the avowed purpose of acquiring Before a packed house, a secession ordinance was introduced and passed by vote of sixty-five to five. peace and security of the people of the State of Alabama, preceded by many and Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address (1861) Ordinances of Secession. Other Southern states, including Arkansas, watched and waited. This edition is from Ordinances and Constitution of the State of Alabama (1861). Dr. Kathleen Logothetis Thompson graduated with her Ph.D. from West Virginia University in 2017. Stanchak, John E. (Patricia L. Faust ed. Alabamainfohub.com provides information through various online resources and not liable to any kind of error or oversight. Geographic exposure to conflict between larger neighboring states also deterred secession in Delaware and Maryland. While Lincoln and his colleagues were not necessarily abolitionists and did not advocate for erasing slavery in the Southern states, they did argue that slavery was a threat to the liberty of Northern, white men (free labor ideology) and advocated for restricting the expansion of slavery outside the states where it was already located. Be it further declared and ordained by the people of the State of Alabama in Convention assembled, That all the powers over the Territory of said State, and over the people thereof, heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States of America, be and they are hereby withdrawn from said Government, and are hereby resumed and vested in the people of the State of Alabama. These delegates came mainly from cities where there were few slaves, or from northern Alabama where small farmers still adhered to Andrew Jacksons notion of an indivisible Union. Alabama was the fourth state to secede from the Union on January 11, 1861. These conflicts took many formseconomic, social, politicalbut almost always included discussion of slavery in some form. Government upon the principles of the Constitution of the United States, We furthermore declare and ordain that article 10, sections 1 and 2, of the constitution of the State of Tennessee, which requires members of the General Assembly and all officers, civil and military, to take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States be, and the same are hereby, abrogated and annulled, and all parts of the constitution of the State of Tennessee making citizenship of the United States a qualification for office and recognizing the Constitution of the United States as the supreme law of this State are in like manner abrogated and annulled. Jackson (who had been removed from office by the State Convention) You may also like to know about: Your email address will not be published. in history with a Certificate in Revolutionary Era Studies from Siena College in 2010. Moderates were also placated by a motion to continue the ban on the African slave trade. ________________________________________ARKANSAS Alabama was central to the Civil War, with the secession convention at Montgomery, birthplace of the Confederacy, inviting other states to form a Southern Republic, during January-March 1861, and develop constitutions to legally run their own affairs. Secession itself occurred in two phases, sparked by specific events in 1860 and 1861. For the South, however, slavery was much more at the forefront. Be it resolved by the people of Alabama in Convention assembled, That WHEREAS, The recent developments in Federal affairs make it evident that the power of the Federal Government is sought to be made a weapon with which to strike down the interests and property of the people of Texas, and her sister slave-holding States, instead of permitting it to be, as was intended, our shield against outrage and aggression; THEREFORE,SECTION 1.-- We, the people of the State of Texas, by delegates in convention assembled, do declare and ordain that the ordinance adopted by our convention of delegates on the 4th day of July, A.D. 1845, and afterwards ratified by us, under which the Republic of Texas was admitted into the Union with other States, and became a party to the compact styled "The Constitution of the United States of America," be, and is hereby, repealed and annulled; that all the powers which, by the said compact, were delegated by Texas to the Federal Government are revoked and resumed; that Texas is of right absolved from all restraints and obligations incurred by said compact, and is a separate sovereign State, and that her citizens and people are absolved from all allegiance to the United States or the government thereof. States and people of the Northern section, is a political wrong of so insulting . 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. The South went to war to preserve their societytheir economy, their social structure, their political powerall of which was built on a foundation of racial slavery. Printed document of the State of Texas' Declaration of Secession from the United States of America. No other state or territory contemplated secession, and the Confederacy did not claim Delaware or Maryland as member states.[5]. 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 Secession Convention met in Tallahassee on January 3, 1861, and passed, on January 10, the Ordinance of Secession. ________________________________________TENNESSEE Ordinance of Secession, adopted by the Alabama constitutional convention of 1861.

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