Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/397

Rh among the most eminent of American citizens. The city was full of visitors and the hall was thronged. The occasion was felt throughout the South to be momentous. &quot; Perhaps no assembly of men ever took place under circumstances of greater anxiety and higher responsibility than those which surrounded and pressed upon this convention.&quot; Mr. Howell Cobb, who was a leading advocate of the compromise of 1850, elected by the Constitutional Union party of 1851, governor of Georgia, subsequently Democratic member of Congress, and lately Secretary of the treasury of the United States, was chosen chairman of the convention. Mr. J. J. Hooper, of Alabama, an editor and author of fame, was elected secretary. Being notified of his election, and assuming the chair, Mr. Cobb, in a brief address, marked by its absence of all passion, said that the great duty was now imposed upon the convention to provide for the States represented, a good government which will maintain with the United States, &quot;our former confederates, as with the world, the most peaceful and friendly relations, both political and commercial.&quot;

The convention adopted rules for its Government which recognized the separate sovereignty of the States and required that the voting shall be done by States. A committee was appointed to present a plan of government for consideration, which reported on the 7th of February a form of constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America, by which the country was to be governed until the permanent Government was formed. After a brief discussion, the Constitution was unanimously adopted February 8th, and on the day following, Mr. Cobb, the President of the Convention, was sworn by Judge Walker to support it. The oath was then formally administered to all members on the call by States, and the convention was fully organized for business.