authority of the people of the State and best secure that harmony, so much to be desired, in times like the present, in questions of detail. The speediest method of accomplishing this will be the perfecting of an ordinance by the Legislature formally declaring the independence of the State of Tennessee of the Federal Union, renouncing its authority, and resuming each and every function belonging to a separate sovereignty; and said ordinance when perfected should be submitted to a vote of the people to be by them adopted or rejected. Under existing circumstances I can see no propriety in encumbering the people of the State with the election of delegates, to do that which is in our power to enable them to do directly for themselves. The most direct as well as the highest act of sovereignty, according to our theory, is that by which the people vote, not merely for men, but for measures submitted for their approval or rejection. Since it is only the voice of the people that is to be heard, there is no reason why they may not as readily and effectively express themselves upon an ordinance framed and submitted to them by the Legislature as if submitted by a convention."
The Legislature was as eager as before to execute the will of the Governor. It embodied his recommendations in an act passed May 6, 1861.[1] This act contained two important provisions. The first was:
"Declaration of Independence and Ordinance dissolving the federal relations between the State of Tennessee and the United States of America.
We the people of the State of Tennessee, waiving any expression of opinion as to the abstract doctrine of secession, but asserting the right, as a free and independent people, to alter, reform, or abolish our form of government in such manner as we think proper, do ordain and declare, that all the laws and ordinances by which the State of Tennessee
- ↑ Acts of Tennessee, 2d Extra Session, 1861, p. 13.
