In February 1861, representatives of the seceding states met in Montgomery, Alabama, and organized the Confederate States of America. In a unanimous vote on December 20, 1860, the state seceded from the Union. Ended the Civil War in 1865. 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 South Carolina acted first, calling for a convention to secede from the Union. Alabama Ordinance of Secession | eHISTORY, Secession Documents: Alabama Civil Discourse, The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States | American Battlefield , Alabama : Constitution of January 7, 1861 Avalon Project, THE ALABAMA CONVENTION. No other state considered secession. This page is not available in other languages. That the people of the State of Mississippi hereby consent to form a federal union with such of the States as may have seceded or may secede from the Union of the United States of America, upon the basis of the present Constitution of the said United States, except such parts thereof as embrace other portions than such seceding States. 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 document is written on 11 sheets of parchment, each page glued to the one below it; it is 20 feet and 8 inches long. Sec. 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 do further declare and ordain that the union now existing between the State of Georgia and other States under the name of the United States of America is hereby dissolved, and that the State of Georgia is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State. Secession. Adopted by the convention of Virginia April 17,1861 ratified by a vote of 132,201 to 37,451 on 23 May 1861. Geographic exposure to conflict between larger neighboring states also deterred secession in Delaware and Maryland. With the capitals of the Confederacy and the Union only 100 miles apart, Virginia became the major battleground of the American Civil War. An Ordinance to dissolve the Union Between The State of North Carolina and The United States, May 20, 1861. That all the laws and ordinances by which the said State of Mississippi became a member of the Federal Union of the United States of America be, and the same are hereby, repealed, and that all obligations on the part of the said State or the people thereof to observe the same be withdrawn, and that the said State doth hereby resume all the rights, functions, and powers which by any of said laws or ordinances were conveyed to the Government of the said United States, and is absolved from all the obligations, restraints, and duties incurred to the said Federal Union, and shall from henceforth be a free, sovereign, and independent State. The issues of secession are complex and it is very true that not every soldier who went to war had slavery in mind as a motivation. The Declaration of Causes made by Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union. Four years of war ended the institution of slavery, altered the Virginia landscape, displaced families, and cost thousands their lives. 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. During the next two months ordinances of secession were adopted by the states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. ORDINANCE OF SECESSION Passed 10 Jan 1861 Our FREE Virtual Teacher Institute is the can't miss online educator event of the summer. 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.". 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. from West Virginia University in 2012 and her B.A. Sec. 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. people of the State of Alabama. Sec. Stay up-to-date on the American Battlefield Trust's battlefield preservation efforts, travel tips, upcoming events, history content and more. a copy of the foregoing Preamble, Ordinance, and Resolutions to the Governors of Done by the people of the It was one of the original seven states to form the Confederacy on. ________________________________________TEXAS Copyright 2023 The Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation. Lincoln's 1st Inaugural Address (1861) Ordinances of Secession. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,. 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 of Alabama, by their Delegates, in Convention, on the 4th day of February, A.D., 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. And as it is the desire and purpose of July 26, 2018. Complete and original . . 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. 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. While historians agree that slavery was a fundamental cause of the war and southern secession, many in the public still contest this historical interpretation. View 06.05 history.docx from HISTORY 10 at Pike County High School. Summary. therefore: Be it declared and ordained by the people of the State of These are great resources to use in the classroomI do an exercise with these documents whenever I teach secession to my studentsbut also for those who want to engage in the practice of history and better understand the causes of secession. 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. Alabama Series J. Crowds gathered in front of the Capitol building in Montgomery, Alabama, the day that the secession bill was passed. Digital History ID 3953. Large celebrations took place in the streets of Montgomery, as cheering crowds fired rockets and firecrackers, amid displays of the Southern Cross and the Lone Star emblems. 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. 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 . To provide faster access to our materials, this finding aid was published without formal and final review. Read the other secession documents here: South Carolina Mississippi Florida Alabama Georgia Louisiana Texas Virginia Arkansas North Carolina Tennessee Missouri Kentucky ________________________________________MISSISSIPPI Florida's Ordinance of Secession . Ultimately, eleven statesSouth Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolinapursued independence as part of the Confederacy. 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. 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 ." Whereas, the election of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin to the . dangerous infractions of the constitution of the United States by many of the The Majority of our funds go directly to Preservation and Education. In Kentucky, whose potential secession Unionists particularly feared,[4] both the legislature and public opinion firmly opposed secession. We do further ordain and declare, That all rights acquired and vested under the Constitution of the United States of America, or of any act or acts of Congress, or treaty, or under any law of this State, and not incompatible with this ordinance, shall remain in full force and effect, in nowise altered or impaired, and have the same effect as if this ordinance had not been passed. South CarolinaMississippiFloridaAlabamaGeorgiaLouisianaTexasVirginiaArkansasNorth CarolinaTennesseeMissouriKentucky. 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. C.F. If not, mention your queries in the comment section. You may also like to know about: Your email address will not be published. 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." ________________________________________GEORGIA Following Abraham Lincoln's election, on November 6, 1860, Governor Madison Starke Perry called on Florida to join with other southern states seceeding from the United States. The South Secedes. As the secession movement grew, people in Arkansas became greatly concerned. a document similar to the United States Constitution, but with greater stress on the autonomy of each . in history with a Certificate in Revolutionary Era Studies from Siena College in 2010. Resolved, By the people of Alabama, in Convention assembled That the State of Alabama cannot, and will not, submit to the Administration of Lincoln and Hamlin as President and Vice President of the United States, upon the principles referred to in the preamble. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. 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. Civil Discourse: A Blog of the Civil War Era. "The ends for which the Constitution was framed are declared by itself to be "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." 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." Thousands of pro-Union voters voted for a secession convention aiming that it should fail. Many were cooperationists who either leaned against seceding or favored a more moderate path out of the Union. Other Southern states, including Arkansas, watched and waited. Show your pride in battlefield preservation by shopping in our store. It represents the turmoil that states in the Upper South faced when picking sides during the war. Secession itself occurred in two phases, sparked by specific events in 1860 and 1861. Required fields are marked *. Every purchase supports the mission. Alabama, in Convention assembled, That the State of Alabama now withdraws, and Adopted and passed in open convention on the 6th day of May, A.D. 1861.