page_title: East Tennessee Convention
section_title: Greeneville session
hierarchical_section_title: East Tennessee Convention / Greeneville session
caption_attribution_description: English: The old county courthouse in Greeneville, Tennessee, United States. This courthouse was built in the 1820s, and demolished with the completion of the current courthouse in 1916.
context_page_description: The East Tennessee Convention was an assembly of Southern Unionist delegates primarily from East Tennessee that met on three occasions during the Civil War. The Convention most notably declared the secessionist actions taken by the Tennessee state government on the eve of the war unconstitutional, and requested that East Tennessee, where Union support remained strong, be allowed to form a separate state that would remain part of the United States split from the rest of Confederate Tennessee. The state legislature denied this request, and the Confederate Army occupied the region in late 1861.
  The Convention first met in Knoxville on May 30–31, 1861, in response to the state government's "Declaration of Independence" from the United States and formation of a military league with the Confederacy. Congressman T. A. R. Nelson was elected president of the Convention, and resolutions were adopted denouncing the state government's actions. The Convention met for the second time in Greeneville from June 17 to June 20, 1861, after Tennessee had voted to secede from the Union.
context_section_description: On June 11, 1861, Nelson, using the power granted him during the Knoxville session, ordered the convention to reassemble in Greeneville on June 17.  Greeneville was chosen over Knoxville due to threats that had been issued against Knoxville Unionists.  On the afternoon of June 17, 285 delegates from across the region convened at the Greene County Courthouse, significantly fewer than the 469 who had met in Knoxville three weeks earlier.  Just 130 of the Greeneville delegates had been delegates at the Knoxville session.  Rhea County did not send any delegates. Marion, Scott, and Cumberland were represented by proxy.  Fentress County, a Middle Tennessee county, was also represented by proxy.
  The convention opened with a prayer by the Reverend James Cummings, a member of the Sevier County delegation.  Officers from the Knoxville session were retained, and Nelson appointed replacements for business committee members who were not present.  Nelson submitted a Declaration of Grievances and a series of resolutions on the evening of the first day, which were immediately referred to the business committee. The next two days were largely consumed by propositions and debate.  Oliver Perry Temple, a delegate from Knox, would later write that many of these propositions were "wild and visionary."  The lone recorded speech was by John Netherland, a member of the Hawkins delegation who had been the Opposition Party's candidate for governor in 1859.  Netherland merely warned against making hasty decisions.
  The Declaration of Grievances suggested that the June 8 election outcome was the result of fraud and intimidation in Middle and West Tennessee, and refuted several statements made by pro-secession newspapers deriding the East Tennessee Convention as not representative of general sentiment in East Tennessee.  The Declaration rejected the notion that Southerners' rights had been violated, accused secessionist leaders of acting in an undemocratic manner, and argued that secessionist leaders were to blame for dividing the country and plunging the nation into civil war.  The Declaration was adopted with little opposition, though the final draft was toned down by Temple and fellow Knox delegate Horace Maynard.
  Unlike the Declaration of Grievances, the resolutions proposed by Nelson were debated at length.  His proposals essentially stated that the Convention would not abide by Tennessee's Declaration of Independence nor would it support the Confederacy; that the counties of East Tennessee would continue as part of the Union as the State of Tennessee; that East Tennessee would remain neutral in any war between the U.S. and the Confederacy, so long as they were left alone; that East Tennessee would resist by force any attempt to station or quarter Confederate troops in the region; that any attack on the region's Unionists would be met with retaliation; and that East Tennessee counties would form military companies for self-defense.
  Many delegates felt that Nelson's resolutions were too extreme and provocative, and would likely lead to bloodshed and destruction.  On the third day (June 20), Oliver Perry Temple offered an alternate set of resolutions.  These essentially stated that the Convention desired peace; that the secessionist actions of the state government were unconstitutional; that the Convention would seek the state legislature's permission to form a new state; and that a convention for the proposed state would be held at Kingston.  The president (Nelson) would choose the date of this convention, and the counties would be represented proportionally (i.e., Knox would have three delegates, Greene, Jefferson, and Washington would each have two, and all other counties would have one).
  Heated debate on the convention floor followed Temple's proposals.  Supporters of Nelson's resolutions, among them Thomas D. Arnold and Robert Johnson of Greene, William J. Clift of Hamilton, William B. Carter of Carter, James G. Spears of Bledsoe, and Leonidas C. Houk of Anderson,  accused the supporters of Temple's resolutions of acting out of fear.  Temple'
caption: The old Greene County Courthouse in Greeneville, where the East Tennessee Convention met in June 1861
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