The legislature framed a resolution approving of the convention, a deposing the Governor if he refused the oath. The United States pro erty in the State was seized by the authorities. On the 10th of M: General Houston made a speech in which he said that having oppos secession earnestly, he had, now that the Federal Government adopt armed coercion, no recourse but to stand by his State in resistance subjugation. In such a juncture a man's section was his country.

That the Cotton States should with almost common consent follo the lead of South Carolina, was regarded almost as a matter of cours but even that was not accomplished without some dissent to the di tation of South Carolina. The interests of the Border States wer however, not so identical, and the line of policy they might pursue no so well defined; in one respect they seemed to be agreed, viz.: th: they would not countenance armed coercion of the South,' and their r lations with the North seemed to hang upon the question of coercion or conciliation. The most influential of them was Virginia. Th leaders in the State seemed earnestly bent on preserving the Union and early in January the legislature sent invitations to all the State to meet in a conference, in order to devise means of compromise. Th State Convention, which assembled February 13th, was many weeks in session, and in its proceedings exhibited no little vacillation of opinion the old-fashioned conservatives being reluctant to cut adrift from the Union, while the more advanced politicians could not repress a hacker ing after the glories of a new slave confederacy. Commissioners were appointed to wait on the President and ascertain the policy that he intended to pursue. A resolution was adopted expressing a willingness that the independence of the seceding States should be acknowledged. On the other hand, resolutions expressive of a desire for conciliation and compromise were passed. When, however, the commissioners were not satisfactorily received at Washington and the President issued his call for troops, the tone of the Convention changed; it immediately went into secret session, and passed, by yeas eighty-eight, nays fifty-five, the following ordinance :

"An Ordinance to repeal the Ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America by the State of Virginia, and to resume all the Rights and Powers granted under said Constitution.

"The people of Virginia, in their ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, adopted by them in convention on the 25th 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 oppres sion, 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 Slaveholding States: "Now, therefore, we, the people of Virginia, do declare and ordain that the ordinance adopted by the people of this State in convention, on the 25th day of June, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and all acts of the General Assembly of this State, ratifying or adopting amendments to said Constitution, are hereby repealed and abrogated, that the union between the State of Virginia and the other States under the Constitution aforesaid is hereby dissolved, and that the State of Virginia is in the full possession and exercise of all the rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and inde

pendent State. And they do further declare that the said Constitution of the United States of America is no longer binding on any of the citizens of this State.

"This ordinance shall take effect and be an act of this day when ratified by a majority of the votes of the people of this State, cast at a poll to be taken thereon on the fourth Thursday in May next, in pursuance of a schedule to be hereafter enacted.

"Done in Convention, in the city of Richmond, on the 17th day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and in the eighty-fifth year of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

"JOHN L. EUBANK, Secretary of Convention."

“An Ordinance for the Adoption of the Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America.

'We, the delegates of the people of Virginia, in convention assembled, solemnly impressed by the perils which surround the commonwealth, and appealing to the Searcher of Hearts for the rectitude of our intentions in assuming the great responsibility of this act, do, by this ordinance, adopt and ratify the Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, ordained and established at Montgomery, Alabama, on the eighth day of February, eighteen hundred and sixty-one; provided that this ordinance shall cease to have any legal operation or effect, if the people of this commonwealth, upon the vote directed to be taken on the ordinance of secession passed by this convention on the 17th day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, shall reject the same.

"A true copy.

"JOHN L. EUBANK, Secretary."

The passage of these ordinances was telegraphed to the South, and Mr. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederate States, at once set out for Virginia, and on April 24th formed a convention between that State and the Confederacy. The secession ordinance was in the latter part of June announced to have been ratified by a vote of one hundred and twenty-five thousand nine hundred and fifty, to twenty thousand three hundred and seventy-three; but this did not include the vote of a large portion of Western Virginia.

In the State of Arkansas the Convention met on the 4th of March, and an ordinance of secession was, after elaborate discussion, rejected by a vote of thirty-nine to thirty-five. On the 18th of April was passed an act submitting the question of secession to the people on the 3d of August. The effect of the President's call for troops was the same here as elsewhere in the South. When it was received, April 22d, the authorities seized the property of the Federal Government in the State; the convention immediately reassembled, and on the 6th of May passed the following ordinance, by yeas sixty-nine, nays one:

"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 Stutes of America.'

"Whereas, In addition to the well-founded cause of complaint set forth by this convention in resolutions adopted on the 11th March, A. D. 1861, against the sectional party now in power at Washington City, headed by Abraham Lincoln, he has, in the face of the resolutions passed by this convention, pledging the State of Arkansas to resist to the last extremity any attempt on the part of such power to coerce any State that seceded from the old Union, proclaimed to the world that war should be waged against such States, until they should be compelled to submit to their rule, and large forces to accomplish this have by the same power been called out, and are now being marshalled to carry out this inhuman design, and longer to submit to such rule or remain in the old Union of the United States would be disgraceful and ruinous to the State of Arkansas:

"Therefore, we, the people of the State of Arkansas, in convention assembled, do hereby declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance

and acceptance of compact,' passed and approved by the General Assembly of the Sta of Arkansas on the 18th of October, A. D. 1836, whereby it was by said Gener Assembly ordained that, by virtue of the authority vested in said General Assembly by the provisions of the ordinance adopted by the convention of delegates assembled a Little Rock, for the purpose of forming a constitution and system of government f said State, the propositions set forth in an act supplementary to an act entitled an a for the admission of the State of Arkansas into the Union, and to provide for the du execution of the 1 ws of the United States within the same, and for other purpose: were freely accepted, ratified, and irrevocably confirmed articles of compact and union be tween the State of Arkansas and the United States,' and all other laws, and ever other law and ordinance, whereby the State of Arkansas became a member of the Fed eral Union, be, and the same are hereby, in all respects, and for every purpose herewith consistent, repealed, abrogated, and fully set aside; and the Union now subsisting be tween the State of Arkansas and the other States under the name of the United States of America, is hereby forever dissolved.

"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.

"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.

"Adopted and passed in open convention on the 6th day of May, Anno Domini 1861. "ELIAS C. BOUDINOT,

"Secretary of the Arkansas State Convention."

The disposition of North Carolina was on the whole friendly to the Union. The legislature, December 20th, gave audience to Messrs. Smith and Garrett, commissioners from Alabama, and also received a communication from the Hon. Jacob Thompson, a member of the Federal cabinet, and also commissioner from Mississippi, to urge co-operation in favor of the proposed Confederacy. This fact happening at a time when a large amount of bonds had been abstracted from his department, produced an influence in North Carolina not favorable to the Southern cause. As late as January 31st, the legislature elected Thomas L. Clingman United States Senator. On the previous day the people had voted by forty-six thousand six hundred and seventy-two yeas to forty-seven thousand three hundred and twenty-three nays, not to call

a convention.

When the Confederate Congress met, February 4th, North Carolina was invited to send delegates. She replied that, as one of the Federal States, she had no right to do so; but she sent commissioners for the purpose of attempting to bring about an arrangement on the basis of the Crittenden resolutions as modified by the Virginia legislature. Those commissioners were invited to occupy seats.

The North Carolina legislature then passed unanimously a resolution, that, if reconciliation should fail, North Carolina would go with the other Slave States. But, though really reluctant to leave the Union, the State could not withstand the impulse given to seces-ion by the events succeeding the surrender of Fort Sumter, and on the receipt of the President's call for troops, the legislature was ordered to convene on the 1st of May. It proceeded at once to call a convention, which

on the 20th passed the ordinance, by a unanimous vote, after a proposition to submit the matter to the people had been defeated by seventythree to thirty-four. The following is the ordinance adopted :—

"We, the people of the State of North Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by the State of North Carolina, in the Convention of 1789, whereby the Constitution of the United States was ratified and adopted, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly, ratifying and adopting amendments to the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded, and abrogated.

"We do further declare and ordain that the Union now subsisting between the State of North Carolina and the other States, under the title of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved, and that the State of North Carolina is in the full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.

"Done at Raleigh, 20th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1861."

The following ordinance, ratifying the Confederate Constitution, was also passed :

"We, the people of North Carolina, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the State of North Carolina does hereby assent to and ratify the 'Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America,' adopted at Montgomery, in the State of Alabama, on the 8th of February, 1861, by the Convention of Delegates from the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and that North Carolina will enter into the Federal Association of States upon the terms therein proposed, when admitted by the Congress or any competent authority of the Confederate States. "Done at Raleigh, 20th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1861."

The State of Tennessee long held out against secession, and on February 8th, by a vote of sixty-seven thousand three hundred and sixty to fifty-four thousand one hundred and fifty-six, decided not to call a convention. But under the influences which had impelled other States to secede, its legislature, on May 7th, adopted a declaration of independence and ordinance, dissolving the Federal relations between Tennessee and the United States, and an ordinance ratifying the Confederate Constitution, the two latter to be voted for by the people on June 8th; on May 8th, a military league was formed with the Confederate States, in virtue of which the forces of Tennessee were to act in aid of the Confederates. On June 24th, Governor Isham G. Harris declared Tennessee out of the Union, the vote for separation being one hundred and four thousand and nineteen against forty-seven thousand two hundred and thirty-eight. The latter was mostly thrown in East Tennessee. The State of Kentucky passed no acts of secession, but adopted a neutral policy. On the 20th of May, Governor Magoffin issued a proclamation, solemnly forbidding any movement of troops upon Kentucky soil. On the receipt of the President's requisition, the Governor issued a proclamation calling the legislature together, to place the State in a defensive position.

Early in December, a commissioner, appointed by a resolution of the legislature of Mississippi, visited Maryland to ask her co-operation in the formation of a new government. Governor Hicks replied that, "when he was convinced that the power of the Federal Government was to be perverted for the destruction, instead of being used for the protection of their rights, then, and not till then, could he consent so to exercise any power with which he was invested, as to afford even

the opportunity for such a proceeding." The Maryland legislatu met at Frederick in extra session on April 27th, and, notwithstandin the feverish excitement in which the secessionists had plunged th country, refused by a very decided majority to call a convention. Th members, however, seemed to have acted from policy rather than lov of the Union, and clung to the delusion of peace at any price, an neutrality between the Federal Government and the seceded State They passed the following preamble and resolutions, May 10th, 1861:

"Whereas, The war against the Confederate States is unconstitutional and repugnar to civilization, and will result in a bloody and shameful overthrow of our institutions and whilst recognizing the obligations of Maryland to the Union, we sympathize wit the South in the struggle for their rights-for the sake of humanity, we are for peac and reconciliation, and solemnly protest against this war, and will take no part in it :"Resolved, That Maryland implores the President, in the name of God, to cease thi unholy war, at least until Congress assembles; that Maryland desires and consents t the recognition of the independence of the Confederate States. The military occupa tion of Maryland is unconstitutional, and she protests against it, though the violen interference with the transit of Federal troops is discountenanced; that the vindication of her rights be left to time and reason, and that a convention, under existing circum stances, is inexpedient."

We have here given the acts of secession of the several Slave States. in succession, before giving an account of the convention which met at Montgomery, in February, to form the Confederate Government of seven Cotton States, in order that the reader may see under what circumstances each State prepared to participate in the proceedings of that body. The Border States, it will be observed, did not secede until after the Confederacy was formed, and the new Administration had adopted a decided coercive policy.

On the 4th of February, the Confederate Congress, composed of delegates from the States of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, met at Montgomery, Alabama. On the same day, a convention, composed of commissioners from twentyone States, appointed at the instance and solicitation of the legislature of Virginia, met in Washington, District of Columbia, to endeavor to devise some plan of retaining the Border States in the Union, and winning back those which had already seceded. The purpose was a praiseworthy one, but it was soon evident that the task they had undertaken was impracticable. The resolutions of compromise, which they finally passed by a bare majority, composed almost entirely of members from the Border States, failed to satisfy either party in the controversy; the Northern States felt that they were asked to yield what they ought not, and the seceded States were unwilling to come back under any circumstances.

On the meeting of the delegates to the Southern Convention, Howell Cobb, Esq., late Secretary of the Treasury for the United States, was elected chairman. In his address he said, that they had met as the representatives of sovereign and independent States, which had dissolved all political connection with the Government of the United States. The separation was complete and perpetual, and their duty was now to provide for future security and protection.

The following were the