Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[184] thanked by the Convention for seizing the forts. A Committee of Fifteen was appointed to draft an Ordinance of Secession. It reported on the 24th, by their Chairman, John Perkins, Jr., and its ordinance was adopted, two days afterward, by a vote of one hundred and thirteen ayes to seventeen noes. Like Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama, Louisiana, the creature of the National Government, speaking in this ordinance through disloyal politicians, declared that it resumed the rights and powers “heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States of America,” its creator.

The galleries of the hall were densely crowded with spectators at this time, who observed the casting of the ballots in profound silence. When the result was known, there was an outburst of the most enthusiastic applause. It ceased, and then President Mouton arose, with great solemnity of manner, and said:--“In virtue of the vote just announced, I now declare the connection between the State of Louisiana and the Federal Union dissolved, and that she is a free, sovereign,--and independent power.” Then Governor Moore entered the hall with a military officer (Captain Allen), bearing a Pelican flag.¹ This was placed in the hands of the President, while the mass of spectators and delegates were swayed with excitement, and cheered vehemently.

The Pelican flag.

When all became quiet, a solemn prayer was offered, and the flag was “blessed according to the rites and forms of the Roman Catholic Church, by Father Hubert.” ² Then a hundred heavy guns were fired, and to each member was presented a gold pen wherewith to sign the Ordinance. After their signatures were affixed, to the number of one hundred and twenty-one, the Convention adjourned,

January 26, 1861.

to meet in the City Hall, at New Orleans, on the 29th, at which time the session was opened with prayer by the Rev. Dr. Palmer, whose Thanksgiving sermon, a few weeks before, we have already considered.³

Before the adjournment, the Convention, sensible of the folly of the Mississippi insurgents in planting a blockading battery at Vicksburg, and in accordance with the recommendation of Slidell and his Congressional colleagues,⁴ resolved unanimously, that they recognized the right of a “free navigation of the Mississippi River and its tributaries by all friendly States bordering thereon ;” also “the right of egress and ingress of the mouths of the Mississippi by all friendly States and Powers.” A motion to submit the Secession Ordinance to the people, for ratification or rejection, was lost.

On the day when the Convention reassembled at New Orleans,

January 29.

an event occurred there which produced a profound sensation throughout the Union. Secretary Dix had sent William Hemphill