Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 6.djvu/20

4 est.” This convention of soldiers also favored the appropriation of $1,000,000 for military purposes recommended by the governor, and supported their action by the tenderof their services. The legislature also promptly responded to the governor’s recommendations by creating the office of adjutant-general of the State, to which position Henry C. Wayne was appointed; authorizing the acceptance of 10,000 troops by the governor, and the purchase of 1,000 Maynard rifles and carbines for coast defense; appropriating the great sum recommended for military purposes, and providing for an election on the first Wednesday of January, 1861, of delegates to a convention which should determine the course of the State in the emergency. The call for this convention was prefaced by the words: “Whereas, The present crisis in our national affairs, in the judgment of the general assembly, demands resistance; and Whereas, It is the privilege and right of the sovereign people to determine upon the mode, measure and time of such resistance."

Notwithstanding these warlike preparations, there was in many sections of the State a strong sentiment against disunion. The vote for presidential candidates in Georgia is a fair criterion of the sentiment in the State prior to the election of Mr. Lincoln. There were three electoral tickets: One for Breckinridge and Lane, one for Bell and Everett, one for Douglas and Johnson, but none for Lincoln and Hamlin. The vote stood as follows: Breckinridge and Lane, 51,893; Bell and Everett, 42,855; Douglas and Johnson, 11,580. As the Breckinridge ticket was favored by the most pronounced Southern rights men, the vote in Georgia showed a small majority against immediate secession by separate State action. But the election of Mr. Lincoln by a purely sectional vote set the current toward secession, causing the tide of disunion sentiment to rise with steadily increasing volume, and strengthening the views and fears of those who could see relief only by withdrawing from a union which