Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/15

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The reply of Governor Kills to this rail lor troops, addressed to Hon. Simon C.i rcroii. Secretary ol \\'ar. on the I5th of April, marked him as a man of prompt decision and vinat force of character. It \\.tsto l)e lor four lon^ year> the watch word of a great State and \\.is but the chrysiali/ed sentiment of the people of that day: " Your dispatch is received, and if genuine, which its extraordinary charac- ter leads me to doiil)t, 1 have to say in reply that I regard the levy of troops made by the administration for the purpose of subjugating the States of the South as in violation of the Constitution, and a i;r"s-. usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked viola- tion of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina."

VI. THE NORTH CAROLINA SECESSION CONVENTION.

The next and the inevitable step was the Convention of 1861. It was provided for by act of May i; the election was held May 13; on the 2Oth the Convention met; on the same day, North Carolina, after much deliberation, after a long consideration which might have been termed cowardice by more hotheaded neighbors, passed the ordi- nance of secession. She had been the last of the Southern States to enter the Federal union; she was the last to sever her connection with it. In this convention, as elsewhere. University of North Car- olina men were all powerful. The following were her contribution to the Convention of 1861:

Alexander county, A. C. Stewart; Beaufort, R. S. Donnell; Bla- den, Thomas D. McDowell; Brunswick, Thomas D. Meares; Cald- well, Edmund W. Jones (?); Camden, Dennis D. Ferebee; Carteret, Charles R. Thomas; Caswell, Bedford Brown; Chatham, J. H. Hea- den, John Manning, L. J. Merritt; Cumberland, Warren Winslow, Malcolm J. McDuffie (?); Davidson, B. A. Kittrell; Duplin, Joseph T. Rhodes; Edgecombe, William S. Battle, George Howard, Jr.; Forsyth, Rufus L. Patterson; Gaston, Sidney X. Johnston; Guilford. John A. Gilmer, R. P. Dick; Halifax, Richard H. Smith; Hender- son, William M. Shipp; Iredell, Anderson Mitchell; Mecklenburg, William Johnston, James W. Osborne; New Hanover, R. H. Cowan. Robert Strange; Northampton, D. A. Barnes; Orange, William A. Graham; Perquimans, Joseph S. Cannon (?); Person, John W. Cun- ningham; Pitt, Bryan Grimes; Randolph, William J. Long, Alfred