Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/635

 CHAPTER XIX. THE SOUTH DURING THE WAR. (18611865.) THE secession of the Southern States and the formation of the Confederacy were events for which the previous political history of the United States had laid the foundation. When the movement culminated in the winter of 1860-1 the Southerners acted promptly, with decision, and with increasing unanimity of feeling. South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860 ; Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana followed during January, 1861 ; Texas in February ; Virginia, Arkansas, and North Carolina delayed till May, Tennessee till June, 1861. The decided action taken by President Lincoln as a result of the attack on Fort Sumter on April 11 turned the scale in the doubtful States. The Montgomery Convention met on February 4, 1861, and included delegates from all the above States except from Virginia, Arkansas, and Tennessee. In four days a pro- visional constitution was drawn up and adopted. On February 9 the Convention elected Jefferson Davis President and Alexander H. Stephens Vice-President of the new Confederacy. They assumed office on the 18th. Before adjourning, the Congress, beside passing the necessary revenue measures, adopted on March 11, 1861, a permanent constitution, which was formally ratified by the legislatures of the eleven States con- cerned, and in all cases by large majorities. The prominent candidates for the Presidency had been Jefferson Davis, Alexander H. Stephens, and Robert Toombs. Of these, Davis and Toombs had been, at Washington and in their respective States, Mississippi and Georgia, outspoken and extreme advocates of States rights, and strongly favoured secession. Davis, after graduating at West Point in 1828, and holding a commission in the United States army for seven years, and again during the Mexican war, settled in Mississippi as a cotton-planter. From 1845 to 1846 and from 1847 to the outbreak of the war he was at Washington, first in the House of Representatives, then, from 1847 to 1851, and again from 1857 to 1861, in the Senate; while from 1852 to 1857 he was Secretary of War. While President of the Confederacy he did not excel as a CH. XIX.