. Kentucky and Missouri, be and are hereby invited to meet the people of the State The secession of South Carolina was followed by the secession of six more statesMississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas-and the threat of secession by four moreVirginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Florida's Ordinance of Secession . Done by the people of the State of Alabama, in Convention assembled, at Montgomery, on this, the eleventh day of January, A.D. 1861. Whereas, the Federal Constitution, which created the Government of the United States, was declared by the framers thereof to be the supreme law of the land, and was intended to limit and did expressly limit the powers of said Government to certain general specified purposes, and did expressly reserve to the States and people all other powers whatever, and the President and Congress have treated this supreme law of the Union with contempt and usurped to themselves the power to interfere with the rights and liberties of the States and the people against the expressed provisions of the Constitution, and have thus substituted for the highest forms of national liberty and constitutional government a central despotism founded upon the ignorant prejudices of the masses of Northern society, and instead of giving protection with the Constitution to the people of fifteen States of this Union have turned loose upon them the unrestrained and raging passions of mobs and fanatics, and because we now seek to hold our liberties, our property, our homes, and our families under the protection of the reserved powers of the States, have blockaded our ports, invaded our soil, and waged war upon our people for the purpose of subjugating us to their will; and Dr. Kathleen Logothetis Thompson graduated with her Ph.D. from West Virginia University in 2017. Be it declared and ordained by the people of the State of Alabama, in Convention assembled, That the State of Alabama now withdraws, and is hereby withdrawn from the Union known as "the United States of America," and henceforth ceases to be one of said United States, and is, and of right ought to be a Sovereign and Independent State. Wanted to withdraw from the Union immediately after Abraham Lincoln was elected. Winston County was populated at the time by what Alabama residents called "Hill people.". Thousands from seceding states, including slaves where the opportunity arose, also chose to fight for the Union. And as it is the desire and purpose of the people of Alabama to meet the slaveholding States of the South, who may approve such purpose, in order to frame a provisional as well as permanent Government upon the principles of the Constitution of the United States, 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. South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas also issued separate documents purporting to justify secession. SEC. ). Voters rejected the convention, and by extension, any secession. Secession Documents: Alabama Civil Discourse Alabama was the fourth state to secede from the Union on January 11, 1861. Read the other secession documents here: South Carolina Mississippi Florida Alabama Georgia Louisiana Texas Virginia Arkansas North Carolina Tennessee Missouri Kentucky The Secession Convention met in Tallahassee on January 3, 1861, and passed, on January 10, the Ordinance of Secession. On February 4, 1861, delegates from six states of the deep South convened in Montgomery, Alabama to organize a provisional government for what they conceived to be a new, independent republicthe Confederate States of America. TSHA | Secession - Handbook of Texas 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. 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. to the offices of president and vice-president of the United States of America, 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. 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. During the next two months ordinances of secession were adopted by the states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. 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. If not, mention your queries in the comment section. The unorganized Indian Territory did not document secession and was not unanimous in its orientation, but generally supported the Confederacy. Two remaining Southern states, Delaware and Maryland, rejected secession and were not regarded by either side as having seceded. This is evident from the Southern states own words as they issued the ordinances of secession and documents of explanation as they each left the United States to form the Confederacy. Secession itself occurred in two phases, sparked by specific events in 1860 and 1861. Fugitive Slave Act 1850. 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 Dr. Kathleen Logothetis Thompson graduated with her Ph.D. from West Virginia University in 2017. Journals of the Secession Convention, 1861 - Constitution of Texas Crowds gathered in front of the Capitol building in Montgomery, Alabama, the day that the secession bill was passed. The document is written on 11 sheets of parchment, each page glued to the one below it; it is 20 feet and 8 inches long. Mississippi seceded from the United States on January 9, 1861. 1861 | Time Line of the Civil War | Articles and Essays | Civil War langdon hall east alabama male college (later auburn Skip to document Ask an Expert The Reasons for Secession: A Documentary Study - American Battlefield Trust Reconvened in March, the Georgia Secession Convention, now a constitutional convention, ratified the new Confederate Constitution and voted to submit the new Georgia constitution to the people by ballot in July. The force of events moved very quickly upon the election of Lincoln. In Missouri, the state government called a convention whose members disfavored secession. 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. Done by the people of the Join us online July 24-26! 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 Majority of our funds go directly to Preservation and Education. 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. Later this month, Alabama troops seized the lighthouse tender U.S.S. Digital History ID 3953. Every purchase supports the mission. The South Secedes. be a Sovereign and Independent State. Every delegate was a white male owning, on average, 10 enslaved people. Stay up-to-date on our FREE educational resources & professional development opportunities, all designed to support your work teaching American history. The 1861 document made specific provisions for the protection of slavery in the state. The first describes the change from the territorial to the state form of government, and the second describes the secession of Alabama from the United States. The remaining slave-holding states had to decide whether they would side with the Union against the South or secede and join the new Confederacyfour states decided to leave. Declarations of Causes of Seceding States - South . 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 Decision to Secede and Establish the Confederacy: A - Historians what southern cross was waved? Avalon Project - Confederate States of America : Documents 1861/01 - Florida's Ordinance of Secession - American Civil War Forums It was one of the original seven states to form the Confederacy on Read more The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States | American Battlefield . Sec 2. [citation needed]. 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). The first was the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. Secession Acts of the Thirteen Confederate States the people of the States of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South is hereby withdrawn from the Union known as "the United States of America," and The convention met in Tallahassee, Florida's capital, for seven days. If it was mistaken, then so am I, but it was my understanding that the early versions of the southern cross were already being introduced as the southern states began seceding. "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery--the greatest material interest of the world," members declared. The letter was signed by Robert Jemison Jr. and thirty-two members of the 1861 secession convention. ________________________________________ARKANSAS Secession - North Carolina History Project They wanted to make clear that their allegiance to the state while explaining their reservations about seceding from the Union. 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. The major secessionist newspaper was the Wilmington Journal, located in slaveholding New Hanover County. 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. Montgomery, Alabama. Sec. SOUTH CAROLINA|MISSISSIPPI|FLORIDA|ALABAMA|GEORGIA|LOUISIANA|TEXAS|VIRGINIA|ARKANSAS|NORTH CAROLINA|TENNESSEE|MISSOURI|KENTUCKY, Secession Acts of the Thirteen Confederate States (Yale), SOUTH CAROLINA Public opinion had shifted dramatically, most notably in Middle Tennessee. The Conventionand the Causethat Organized the Confederacy 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. The Alabama Secession - The Civil War Months Slavery and Justifications for Southern Secession in Their Own Words Texas' constitution is one of the largest state constitutions in the U.S. - only Alabama's and California's are longer. Be it further ordained, That the unconstitutional edicts of a factious majority of a Legislature thus false to their pledges, their honor, and their interests are not law, and that such a government is unworthy of the support of a brave and free people, and that we do therefore declare that the people are thereby absolved from all allegiance to said government, and that they have a right to establish any government which to them may seem best adapted to the preservation of their rights and liberties. Send Students on School Field Trips to Battlefields Your Gift Tripled! Be it resolved by the people of Alabama in Convention assembled, That 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. 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. 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. 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. document or series of documents begins. State by state, conventions were held, and the Confederacy was . Governor Moores order of the past week to seize U.S. forts and military installations was retroactively endorsed. Lewis Cass, stationed at Mobile to collect U.S. tariffs. While historians agree that slavery was a fundamental cause of the war and southern secession, many in the public still contest this historical interpretation. The Civil War was not about slaveryhistorians hear this all the time, whether at historic sites, in the classroom, or in conversations with friends and strangers alike. 1 REEL INDEX John Fletcher Comer . consulting with each other as to the most effectual mode of securing concerted The legislature voted to hold an election on December 22 for the selection of delegates for an upcoming Secession Convention. I was able to analyze four secession documents written by states: South Carolina . Articles of secession, adopted December 24, 1860. 06-05_task1.docx - Name: Date: School: Facilitator: 6.05 Secession Done by the people of the State of Texas, in convention assembled, at Austin, this 1st day of February, A.D. 1861. Mississippi. Convention (1861). Proceedings of the Mississippi State Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected president. Your email address will not be published. Despite these preliminary maneuvers, the convention that opened on the 7th included fewer diehard secessionists than in other Deep South state conventions. 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: 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. And as it is the desire and purpose of Geographic exposure to conflict between larger neighboring states also deterred secession in Delaware and Maryland. Be it further declared and Rebecca Beatrice Brooks May 14, 2012 No Comments. 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. Secession Documents: Alabama Civil Discourse Traditionally, only four states are held to have issued "declarations of causes:" South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas.In addition, Alabama, Virginia, and Tennessee issued legislative resolutions touching on the issue of secession, and there is a "lost" declaration from Florida.However, buried within the journals of the Arkansas Secession Convention are the details of this . On January 11, 1861, a convention of elected delegates passed an ordinance withdrawing Alabama from the United States. 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 South CarolinaMississippiFloridaAlabamaGeorgiaLouisianaTexasVirginiaArkansasNorth CarolinaTennesseeMissouriKentucky. And whereas, the majority of the Legislature of Kentucky have violated their most solemn pledges made before the election, and deceived and betrayed the people; have abandoned the position of neutrality assumed by themselves and the people, and invited into the State the organized armies of Lincoln; have abdicated the Government in favor of a military despotism which they have placed around themselves, but cannot control, and have abandoned the duty of shielding the citizen with their protection; have thrown upon our people and the State the horrors and ravages of war, instead of attempting to preserve the peace, and have voted men and money for the war waged by the North for the destruction of our constitutional rights; have violated the expressed words of the constitution by borrowing five millions of money for the support of the war without a vote of the people; have permitted the arrest and imprisonment of our citizens, and transferred the constitutional prerogatives of the Executive to a military commission of partisans; have seen the writ of habeus corpus suspended without an effort for its preservation, and permitted our people to be driven in exile from their homes; have subjected our property to confiscation and our persons to confinement in the penitentiary as felons, because we may choose to take part in a cause for civil liberty and constitutional government against a sectional majority waging war against the people and institutions of fifteen independent States of the old Federal Union, and have done all these things deliberately against the warnings and vetoes of the Governor and the solemn remonstrances of the minority in the Senate and House of Representatives: Therefore, First. Alabamainfohub.com provides information through various online resources and not liable to any kind of error or oversight. The American Battlefield Trust is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Later Virginia (except for its northwestern counties, which broke away and formed the Union-loyal state of West Virginia), Arkansas, North . Secession Dbq - 324 Words | 123 Help Me 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. common peace and security. dangerous infractions of the constitution of the United States by many of the Alert at Mobile. 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 . Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Moderates were also placated by a motion to continue the ban on the African slave trade. White Georgians, along with other white southerners, disagreed over whether secession was a constitutional right (embodied in the national compact that grew out of . Biographies of the Delegates to the Alabama Secession Convention Part Our FREE Virtual Teacher Institute is the can't miss online educator event of the summer. The governor sent a force to take the Fort Smith arsenal, and Arkansas regiments began organizing to fight for the South. January 11, 1861 - Alabama Secedes | The Eagle and The Journal 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 election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin 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. Order # 28. Alabama Ordinance of Secession of 1861. Secession Documents: Introduction Civil Discourse Done at Charleston the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty. Articles. On January 19, the Tennessee legislature in special session beginning January 7 required that approval of a possible secession convention be put to referendum on February 9. In Tennessee as in Arkansas, during the secession crisis of 1861 the support for immediate secession was weak. In Missouri and Kentucky, attempted secession was belated, severely disrupted, lacked sufficient popular support, and failed. The University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections, United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865. The captain was ordered to surrender into my hands, for the use of the State, the revenue cutter Lewis Cass, now under your command, together with her armaments, properties and provisions on board the same.. ordained by the people of the State of Alabama in Convention assembled, That all The "Secession Movement," political cartoon, ca. 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.". hereby withdrawn from said Government, and are hereby resumed and vested in the Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,. from West Virginia University in 2012 and her B.A. One-stop destination for complete information on all trending topics related to Alabama state. Declaration of the Causes of Secession, Georgia - University of Houston In the "volunteer state," the memory of Andrew . Alabama Series J. The original document is housed in the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, South Carolina. Ordinance of Secession, adopted by the Alabama constitutional 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. Adopted January 11, 1861. in history with a Certificate in Revolutionary Era Studies from Siena College in 2010.