became a member of the Federal Union of the United States of America are hereby abrogated and annulled, and that all obligation on our part be withdrawn therefrom; and we do hereby resume all the rights, functions, and powers which by any of said laws and ordinances were conveyed to the Government of the United States, and absolve ourselves from all obligations, restraints, duties, incurred thereto; and do hereby henceforth become a free, sovereign, and independent State."
This ordinance was to be submitted to a direct vote of the people. Two sets of tickets were to be prepared; one set marked Separation, the other Non-Separation. Those favoring the ordinance were to vote the former ticket, those opposed, the latter. The act of May 6th further provided for the submission at the same election of the question as to whether Tennessee, if it severed its relations with the Union, should join the Confederacy. This question was also embodied in the form of an Ordinance.
But the Governor and the Legislature did not wait for the popular verdict upon these Ordinances. As early as May 7th, they extended an invitation to the Confederacy to select Nashville as its capital city. A few days later a still more extraordinary step was taken. Governor Harris, acting under a joint resolution of the Legislature, appointed three commissioners to negotiate a military league with the Confederate authorities. These commissioners, representing the State of Tennessee, and Mr. Henry W. Hilliard, an agent of the Confederacy, drew up the following agreement:
"Convention between the State of Tennessee and Confederate States of America.[1]
"The State of Tennessee, looking to a speedy admission into the Confederacy established by the Confederate States of America, in accordance with the Constitution for the Provisional Government of said States, enters into the fol-*
- ↑ Acts of Tennessee, 2d Extra Session, 1861, p. 19.
