The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-03-29

concerning the secession of the South
ern States will, with your permission,
give few. The first State to secede
was South Carolina, which she did
December 90, 1860 The Legislature
called a convention and the people
elected the delegates, andif there was
any Union sentiment in the State it
was too weak to elect even one dele
gate, for when the Convention met It's
one hundred and sixty-nine members
were unanimous for secession. The
next State was Mississippi; there also
convention Of the people was elected
under call Of the Legislature, and
on January 9, 1861, it passed an ordi-
nance Of secession by vote Of 81 to
Is, nearly six TO one. But it must
not be supposed that the, small num-
Der who voted against secession we're
Unionists. They declared themselves
to be "co-operationists, which meant
secession in another form, that is,
they were in favor Of the fifteen
Southern States holding convention,
and if majority Of them, which would
have been eight, declared IN favor of
secession, then they were in favor Of
their own State seeding, and as more
than eight States did eventually
secede, Of course cooperation would
have resulted in secession. Indeed,
some Of the co-operationists were in
favor Of secession if only the cotton
States agreed to itin joint convention.
After Mississippi the people of Florida
passed an ordinance Of secession in
convention on January 10, 1861, by a
vote of 81 to Z, about nine to one.
And then came Alabama, whose con-
vention on January II, 1861, voted to
secede by 62 to 80, the thirty-nine
not being Unionists, but cooperation
lists, as the fifteen in the Mississippi
Convention had been. In other words,
the difference in opinion in the Ala
bama convention was one between i'm
mediate secession and secession lit
L.
tie later, and after the convention had
passed the ordinance many Of the CO.
operation delegates came forward and
pledged themselves and their consti-
.tuents to its support.
GEORGIA NEXT.
Georgia was the next State to secede,
which she did on January 19, 1861, by
a vote in her convention Of 20S to SO.
Alexander Fl. Stephens, afterwards
Vice President Of the Confederacy,
and his brother, Judge Linton Ste
phens, being the leaders Of the 50.
Immediately after the ordinance was
passed Judge Linton Stephens intro
duced a resolution in which it was de-
clared that those who had opposed it
did not deny the right Of a State to
secede, nor that the Southern States
did not have cause for secession, but
that they only thought, that it ought
lot to be exercised until every effort
to,preserve peace had been exhausted.
ct must be remembered that at that
very time the Senators and Represen-
tatives in Congress Of all the border
Southern States, including Virginia,
were making every effort to induce
the North to guarantee the rights of
the South in the Union by constitu-
sional amendments, but which the
North utterly failed to do, though had
it been done peace would most assur-
edly have been preserved.) And then
Judge Linton Stephen $ resolution in
the Georgia convention went on and
declared that as evidence of the fact
that those who had voted against Sc
cession did not deny the right Of it,
nor that the Southern States had
cause for it, that all Of those members
Of the convention who had voted
against it as well as those who had
voted for it should sign the ordinance
which had been passed. That resolu-
ton was adopted and under it all Of
the three hundred and one delegates
who had favored the convention Of
Georgia, (there had been four absent
when secession was voted on) signed
the ordinance except six, and even
those six signed and placed on record
a paper in which they declared that
they would support the State in her
action. Georgia, therefore, went into
secession with practically the solid
support Of her people as represented
in convention. Louisiana followed
Georgia and seeded on January 26,
1861. The fight in that State was
altogether between immediate seces-
c;on ond co-oneration such as it had