Ordinances of Secession of the Southern States
South Carolina
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";
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repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South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.
Done at Charleston the twentieth day of December, in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Mississippi
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."
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. 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hereby, repealed, and that all obligations on the part of the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withdrawn, and that the said State doth hereby resume all the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.
Section 2. 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.
Section 3. That all rights acquired and vested under the
Constitution of the United States, or under any act of Congress
passed, or treaty made, in pursuance thereof, or under any law of
this State, and not incompatible with this ordinance, shall
remain in force and have the same effect as if this ordinance had
not been passed.
Section 4. 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.
Thus ordained and declared in convention the 9th day
of January, in the year of our Lord 1861.
Florida
We, the people of the State of Florida, in convention
assembled, do solemnly ordain, publish, and declare, That the
State of Florida hereby withdraws herself from the confederacy of
States existing under the name of the United States of America
and from the existing Government of the said States; and that all
political connection between her and the Government of said
States ought to be, and the same is hereby, totally annulled, and
said Union of States dissolved; and the State of Florida is
hereby declared a sovereign and independent nation; and that all
ordinances heretofore adopted, in so far as they create or
recognize said Union, are rescinded; and all laws or parts of
laws in force in this State, in so far as they recognize or
assent to said Union, be, and they are hereby, repealed.
Passed 10 January 1861.
Alabama
An Ordinance to dissolve the union between the State
of Alabama and the 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 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:
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.
Sec 2. Be it further declared and ordained by the
people of the State of Alabama in Convention assembled, That all
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.
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,
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.
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.
Done by the people of the State of Alabama, in
Convention assembled, at Montgomery, on this, the eleventh day of
January, A.D. 1861.
Georgia
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. 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.
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.
Passed 19 January 1861.
Louisiana
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."
We, the people of the State of Louisiana, in
convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby
declared and ordained, That the ordinance passed by us in
convention on the 22d day of November, in the year eighteen
hundred and eleven, whereby the Constitution of the United States
of America and the amendments of the said Constitution were
adopted, and all laws and ordinances by which the State of
Louisiana became a member of the Federal Union, be, and the same
are hereby, repealed and abrogated; and that the union now
subsisting between Louisiana and other States under the name of
"The United States of America" is hereby dissolved.
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.
We do further declare and ordain, That all rights
acquired and vested under the Constitution of the United States,
or any act of Congress, or treaty, or under any law of this
State, and not incompatible with this ordinance, shall remain in
force and have the same effect as if this ordinance had not been
passed.
Adopted in convention at Baton Rouge this 26th day of
January, 1861.
Texas
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."
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
Whereas, the action of the Northern States of the
Union is violative of the compact between the States and the
guarantees of the Constitution; and,
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.
Section 2. 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.
Done by the people of the State of Texas, in
convention assembled, at Austin, this 1st day of February, A.D.
1861. Ratified 23 February 1861 by a vote of 46,153 for and
14,747 against.
Virginia
An Ordinance to repeal the ratification of the
Constitution of the United State 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 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:
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 twenty-fifth day of June, 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 all acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying and
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 independent State.
And they do further declare, That 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 voters 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 hereafter to be
enacted.
Adopted by the convention of Virginia 17 April 1861.
Ratified by a vote of 132,201 to 37,451 on 23 May 1861.
Arkansas
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."
Whereas, in addition to the well-founded causes of complaint set forth by this convention, in resolutions adopted on
the 11th of March, A.D. 1861, against the sectional party now in
power in Washington City, headed by Abraham Lincoln, he has, in
the face of 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 had 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 this same
power been called out, and are now being marshaled to carry out
this inhuman design; and to longer 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 State of Arkansas on the 18th day of October,
A.D. 1836, whereby it was by said General 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 at Little Rock for the purpose of forming a
constitution and system of government for said State, the
propositions set forth in "An act supplementary to an act
entitled `An act for the admission of the State of Arkansas into
the Union, and to provide for the due execution of the laws of
the United States within the same, and for other purposes,'"
were freely accepted, ratified, and irrevocably confirmed,
articles of compact and union between the State of Arkansas and
the United States, and all other laws and every other law and
ordinance, whereby the State of Arkansas became a member of the
Federal 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 between 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, A.D. 1861.
North Carolina
An Ordinance to dissolve the union between the State
of North Carolina and the other States united with her, under the
compact of government entitled "The Constitution of the
United States."
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 full
possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which
belong and appertain to a free and independent State.
Done in convention at the city of Raleigh, this the
20th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1861, and in the
eighty-fifth year of the independence of said State.
Tennessee
Declaration of Independence and Ordinance dissolving
the federal relations between the State of Tennessee and the
United States of America.
First. 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.
Second. 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.
Third. We furthermore ordain and declare that all
rights acquired and vested under the Constitution of the United
States, or under any act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof,
or under any laws of this State, and not incompatible with this
ordinance, shall remain in force and have the same effect as if
this ordinance had not been passed.
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.
Missouri
An act declaring the political ties heretofore existing between the State of Missouri and the United States of America 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
Whereas the present Administration of the Government
of the United States has utterly ignored the Constitution,
subverted the Government as constructed and intended by its
makers, and established a despotic and arbitrary power instead
thereof: Now, therefore,
Be it enacted by the general assembly of the State of
Missouri, That all political ties of every character now existing
between the Government of the United States of America and the
people and government of the State of Missouri are hereby
dissolved, and the State of Missouri, resuming the sovereignty
granted by compact to the said United States upon admission of
said State into the Federal Union, does again take its place as a
free and independent republic amongst the nations of the earth.
This act to take effect and be in force from and after
its passage.
Approved, October 31, 1861.
Kentucky
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
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,
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.
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 habeas
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,
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.
Adopted 20 November 1861, by a group of Kentucky soldiers in the Confederate Army, styling itself as a "Convention of the People of Kentucky."
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