Friday, May 6, 2011

Tennessee, Arkansas both secede

Tennessee Secession flag 1861-1863
Arkansas secession cartoon
  • In Nashville, the Tennessee legislature votes to put the question of secession before the people in a popular referendum on June 8. In the meantime, the state legislature votes 66-25 in favor of a “Declaration of Independence and Ordinance dissolving the federal relations between the State of Tennessee and the United States of America, thus becoming the ninth state to resume her full sovereignty and cast her lot with the Confederate States. The vote went along geographic lines. Secessionist Middle and West Tennessee outvotes Unionist East Tennessee./1861 
  • In Little Rock, Arkansas, David Walker, chairman of the Arkansas Secession Convention, reconvenes the body and in light of Virginia’s secession and Lincoln’s demand for troops, the convention votes 69-1 to approve an ordinance of secession from the Union and join the Confederacy, the tenth state to do so. The lone dissenting vote is cast by Isaac Murphy, who would later serve as Arkansas’s first governor during Reconstruction./1861  
  • A Unionist rally is held in Fairmont, western Virginia./1861
  • In Montgomery, Alabama, President Jefferson Davis gives approval to the Confederate Congressional bill declaring a state of war between the United States and the Confederate States./1861
  • The New Orleans Bee reports that people holding US postage stamps must use them by June 1, 1861./1861

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