TENNESSEE. 



681 



Ftitution of the State and of the United States. 

 (Constitution of Tennessee, art. x., sections 1, 2.) 



By another act the Governor was required 

 to raise, organize, and equip, a provisional force 

 of volunteers for the defence of the State, to 

 consist of 55,000 men ; 25,000 of whom, or any 

 less number demanded by the wants of the ser- 

 vice, were to be fitted for the field, at the ear- 

 liest practicable moment, and the remainder to 

 be held in reserve, ready to inarch at short no- 

 tice. It authorized the Governor, should it be- 

 come necessary for the safety of the State, to 

 " call out the whole available military strength 

 of the State," and to determine when this force 

 should serve, and direct it accordingly. To 

 defray the expenses of this military organiza- 

 tion, the Governor was authorized " to issue 

 and dispose of $5,000,000 of the bonds of the 

 State," in denominations of not less than $100, 

 or greater than $1,000, to run ten years, and 

 bear interest at the rate of 8 per cent. 



Thus provided with a semblance of author- 

 ity, the Governor hastened the organization of 

 the provisional force of 25,000 men, and before 

 the day of the election, June 8, 1861, he had 

 most of it on foot, and distributed in camps 

 around Nashville and elsewhere, armed and 

 equipped, so far as it could be, with the muni- 

 tions of the United States in possession of the 

 State, and with such as could be obtained from 

 the arsenal at Augusta, Georgia, from which 

 they were brought by Gen. Zollicoffer. Thus, 

 on the morning of the election, the people of 

 Tennessee, for the first time in their lives, went 

 to the polls conscious that they were no longer 

 a free people ; knowing that the Executive and 

 Legislative Departments of the State, with its 

 Treasury in their hands, and with all the arms 

 of the State in their possession, and with a for- 

 midable army in their pay, had joined a con- 

 spiracy to overthrow their Government, and 

 that nothing remained for them but to reverse 

 their vote of the 9th of February, and to ratify 

 what their self-constituted masters had already 

 accomplished. Even by voting against the 

 Declaration of Independence, and by refusing 

 to absolve their officers from the oath to sup- 

 port the Constitution of the United States, and 

 declining to accept the Constitution of the Con- 

 federate States, they could not free themselves 

 from the military incubus which had been im- 

 posed upon them. In these circumstances it is 

 not to be wondered at that the election showed 

 an apparent majority of 57,667 for secession. It 

 must not be concluded, however, that this ma- 

 jority was real ; for the men who could so 

 wantonly contemn the obligations of the law 

 as to resort to the measures above detailed, 

 could not escape from the suspicion of having 

 filled the ballot-box with spurious votes. 



By such means was Tennessee carried over 

 to the Confederate States, and in the employ- 

 ment of these means there does not appear to 

 have been any semblance of regard, among the 

 actors, for oaths or for the observance of the 

 most solemn obligations of legal and constitu- 



tional duty. The Constitution of the United 

 States ordains that " no State shall enter into 

 any treaty, alliance, or confederation ; " nor, 

 u without the consent of Congress, keep troops 

 or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any 

 agreement or compact with another State, or 

 with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless 

 actually invaded, or in such imminent danger 

 as will admit of no delay ; " and that " the Con- 

 stitution and laws of the United States, made 

 in pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law 

 of the land ; and the judges in every State shall 

 be bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution 

 or laws of any State to the contrary notwith- 

 standing." The State Constitution, as above 

 stated, required every Tennessee official person, 

 before assuming his office, " to take an oath to 

 support the Constitution of the United States." 

 The State declaration of rights acknowledges 

 the supremacy of the Constitution of the United 

 States, and explicitly admits that the people of 

 the State themselves have the right of exercis- 

 ing sovereignty, and the right of soil over the 

 territory of the State, only " so far as is con- 

 sistent with the Constitution of the United 

 States." Moreover, the State Constitution, 

 enumerating the powers of the Governor, or- 

 dains that he shall be commander-in-chief of 

 the army and navy of the State, and of the mi- 

 litia, except when they shall be called into the 

 service of the United States, in which ease, by 

 the national Constitution, " the President shall 

 be cominander-in-chief of the militia of the 

 several States." Finally, the Constitution of 

 the State provides a method for its own amend- 

 ment, by which the General Assembly, during 

 its period of existence, can only propose an 

 amendment, which it must cause to be entered 

 on its journals, with the ayes and noes thereon. 

 This proposal must be referred by the General 

 Assembly which makes it, to the General As- 

 sembly next chosen, first causing it to be pub- 

 lished six months before such choice. If the 

 proposal is agreed to by two-thirds of all the 

 members elected to each house of such second 

 General Assembly, then that body shall sub- 

 mit the proposal to the people ; and, if the peo- 

 ple approve and ratify the proposal by a major- 

 ity of all those who voted for the members of 

 the Assembly, voting for it, then the proposal 

 becomes a part of the Constitution. 



Such being the fundamental law of Tennes- 

 see, the thirty-third General Assembly appears 

 before the world as striking out two sections 

 of the State Constitution, by submitting a prop- 

 osition to the people directly for the purpose ; 

 and, by a mere resolution, forming a military 

 league'with the Confederate States, and placing 

 the whole military force of the State under the 

 control of the President of those States : it also 

 appears as setting aside the whole Constitution 

 of the United States, and accepting another 

 Constitution by means of a vote of the people 

 of Tennessee, when that people had no sover- 

 eignty over their own territory except in sub- 

 ordination to the Constitution of the United 



