Aijl FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE I9TH CENTURY II9 



stitution was ratified. No further referendum on the seces- 

 sion ordinances was held, notwithstanding the fact that the 

 bill of January 30 had provided that no secession move- 

 ment would be valid unless approved by popular majority 

 vote.°« 



The first popular vote in Tennessee decided against the 

 holding of a state convention by a poll of 67,360 to 54>i56- 

 But on May i the Legislature "passed a joint resolution 

 authorizing the Governor to appoint Commissioners to enter 

 into a military league with the authorities of the * Con- 

 federate ' States." The declaration of independence, passed 

 on May 6, was submitted to the vote of the people on June 

 8. Governor Harris declared Tennessee out of the Union, 

 the popular vote resulting in 104,019 for, and 47>238 against 

 the measure."^ 



While the secession ordinances had been voted upon 

 and had been accepted without great opposition in the 

 legislatures of most of the seceding States, and had been 

 approved by popular referendum in Texas and Tennessee, 

 matters moved more slowly in Virginia, where, when they 

 were finally brought to a head, they ended in the division 

 of the State."'^ 



" Unequal representation of the counties " as "established 

 in the year 1661, by the House of Burgesses," and "limita- 

 tion of suffrage to freeholders . . . imposed on the Colony 

 in 1677, by Royal instruction from Charles H, to the Gov- 

 ernor of the Colony of Virginia ' to take care that the mem- 

 bers of the Assembly be elected only by freeholders, as 

 being more agreeable to the customs of England,' " had long 

 ago set the counties east and west of the Blue Ridge Moun- 

 tains in opposition to each other. "With the increase of 

 the population and the organization of counties west of the 



»8 Ibid., pp. 4-5. 



"o Ibid., p. 5. 



looji^P following outline is based on V. A. Lewis' History of 

 West Virginia, Philadelpliia, 1889, chapters x.\-.\.xv; Appleton's 

 American Annual CyclonaL-dia and Register of Important Kvents of 

 the year 1861, Virginia, and Virginia, Western; McPherson, pp. 5-8. 

 Quotations, unless otherwise stated, are from Lewis. 



