678 



TENNESSEE. 



The returns from all the counties made the 

 actual majority 64,114. The question of hold- 

 ing a convention was determined in the nega- 

 tive by a large majority, thus declaring that 

 there was no need for a convention at all to 

 determine where Tennessee should stand. The 

 Union delegates at Memphis were elected by a 

 majority of 400. The vote of the State on the 

 convention question was as follows : 



East Tennessee voted no convention by 

 25,611 majority, or four and a quarter to one. 

 Middle Tennessee 1,382 majority ; but "West 

 Tennessee gave for a convention 15,118 ma- 

 jority. The vote for no convention was 69,673. 

 The total vote for and against convention was 

 127,471, with a majority against the meeting 

 of a convention of 11,875. 



The people decided that no convention should 

 be held, chiefly because they had seen that all 

 the conventions which had been held in the 

 Southern States had withdrawn their States 

 from the Union, and then had proceeded to 

 sit on their own adjournments, as if they con- 

 ceived 1 they possessed the right to continue 

 their own existence indefinitely. The loyal 

 people of Tennessee now flattered themselves 

 that they had thus put an effectual stop to the 

 secession movement in the State, and so the 

 secessionists thought as well ; and even the 

 Governor seemed, for a time, to have aban- 

 doned the scheme. 



The proclamation of the President, on the 

 . 15th of April, produced an intense feeling 

 throughout the State. The Governor imme- 

 diately called an extra session of the Legislature, 

 to be convened on the 25th of April. He re- 

 fused the requisition of the President for troops 

 saying : 



Hon. Simon Cameron : 



SIR: Your despatch of the 15th inst., informing me 

 that Tennessee is called upon for two regiments of 

 militia for immediate service, is received. 



Tennessee will not furnish a man for purposes of 

 coercion, but 50,000, if necessary, for the defence of 

 our rights, and those of our Southern brothers. 



ISHAM G. HARRIS, Governor of Tennessee. 



At the same time an address was issued to 

 the people of the State by some of her most 

 eminent citizens, as Messrs. Neil S. Brown, Rus- 

 sell Houston, E. H. Ewing, C. Johnson, John 

 Bell, E. J. Meigs, S. D. Morgan, John S. Brien, 

 Andrew Ewing, John H. Callender, and Baylie 

 Peyton. 



Patriotic as were their views, they were un- 

 able to stem the tide of secession when it came 

 in the flood. They say : 



" We unqualifiedly disapprove of secession, 

 both as a constitutional right, and as a remedy 

 for existing evils ; we equally condemn the 

 policy of the Administration in reference to the 

 seceded States. But while we, without quali- 

 fication, condemn the policy of coercion as cal- 

 culated to dissolve the Union forever, and to 

 dissolve it in the blood of our fellow-citizens, 

 and regard it as sufficient to justify the State 

 in refusing her aid to the Government in its 

 attempt to suppress the revolution in the seceded 



States, we do not think it her duty, consider- 

 ing her position in the Union, and in view of 

 the great question of the peace of our distracted 

 country, to take sides against the Government. 

 Tennessee has wronged no State or citizen of 

 this Union. She has violated the rights of no 

 State, North or South. She has been loyal to 

 all, where loyalty was due. She has not 

 brought on this war by any act of hers. She 

 has tried every means in her power to prevent 

 it. She now stands ready to do any thing within 

 her reach to stop it. And she ought, as we 

 think, to decline joining either party ; for in so 

 doing they would at once terminate her grand 

 mission of peace-maker between the States of 

 the South and the General Government. Nay, 

 more; the almost inevitable result would be 

 the transfer of the war within her own borders, 

 the defeat of all hopes of reconciliation, and 

 the deluging of the State with the blood of her 

 own people." 



On the 25th of April, the Legislature assem- 

 bled for the third time, although the members 

 had been elected without any reference to the 

 momentous questions now about to be consid- 

 ered. In the Assembly, on the same day, the 

 following resolution was offered : 



^Resolved, That upon the grave and solemn matters 

 for our consideration, submitted by the Governor's 

 Message, with a view to the public safety, the two 

 Houses of this Legislature hold their sessions with 

 closed doors whenever a secret session in either House 

 may be called for by five members of said House, and 

 that the oath of secrecy be administered to the officers 

 and members of said House. 



The resolution was adopted. Ayes 42; 

 noes 8. 



The Message of the Governor was very 

 strong and decided in urging immediate seces- 

 sion. In it he said : 



" I respectfully recommend the perfecting 

 of an ordinance by the General Assembly, for- 

 mally declaring the independence of the State of 

 Tennessee of the Federal Union, renouncing its 

 authority, and reassuming each and every func- 

 tion belonging to a separate sovereignty ; and 

 that said ordinance, when it shall have been 

 thus perfected by the Legislature, shall, at the 

 earliest practicable time, be submitted to a vote 

 of the people, to be by them adopted or re- 

 jected. 



"When the people of the State shall formally 

 declare their connection with the remaining 

 States of the Union dissolved, it will be a mat- 

 ter of the highest expediency, I might almost say 

 of unavoidable political necessity, that we shall 

 at the same time, or as soon thereafter as may be, 

 connect ourselves with those with whom a com- 

 mon interest, a common sympathy, ,and a com- 

 mon destiny identify us, for weal or for woe. 



" I therefore further recommend that you 

 perfect an ordinance with a view to our admis- 

 sion as a member of the Southern Confederacy, 

 (which, it is evident, must soon embrace the 

 entire slaveholding States of the South,) to be 

 submitted in like manner, and at -the same 

 time, but separately, for adoption or rejection 



