Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/232

 224 Southern Historical Society Papers,

In Florida the ordinance was adopted on the loth of January, i86i, by a vote of 62 to 7, but was not submitted to the people.

In Mississippi the ordinance was adopted on the 9th of January, 1 86 1, by a vote of 84 to 15, and was not submitted to the people.

In Louisiana the ordinance was adopted in convention on the 25th of January, 1861, by a vote of 113 to 17, the convention refu3ing to submit it to the people by a vote of 84 to 45.

In Texas the ordinance was approved by a vote of the people, the Governor of the Stale standing stoutly in opposition. The popular vote stood 34,794 for and 11,235 against secession. The whole vote cast in the presidential election in November, i860, by the people of Texas was 62,986, being nearly 17,000 more than the vote on the ordinance of secession. The 17,000 votes withheld from the ordi- nance added to the 11,235 cast against it indicate the strength of the popular opposition to secession in that State. If the vote of Texas be anything like a fair test of popular opinion in the States in which the people did not vote on the ordinance, I think I am warranted in saying that a large minority of the people of the cotton States were not in favor of secession in the early stages of that move- ment.

Such was the state of affairs when the Montgomery Confederacy was formed. It effected no immediate material change in the social and political condition of the people, a large minority of whom "were opposed to the measures which had led to the establishment of the government. In the convention of South Carolina, at least, there was some doubt and some debate, as I have shown, about the causes of secession, the discussion occurring, curiously enough, after the* act of secession had been consummated.

If we now turn to the border slave States we shall find a marked difference of opinion and feeling.

The people of Arkansas voted on the i6th of January, 1861, on the proposition to call a convention to decide upon the subject of se- cession. It was determined to hold a convention by a vote of 27,412 for and 15.826 against the measure, out of a voting population of 54,053, as shown by the vote cast at the presidential election in No- vember, i860, indicating that the people were nearly divided.

The convention assembled on the 4th of March following, and on the 1 8th rejected an ordinance of secession by a vote of 35 to 39 against it.

In North Carolina the Legislature passed a bill, on the 30th of January, 1 861, to submit to a popular vote the question of calling a