Doc. 144.-the Tennessee league.
Message of Governor Harris.
Convention between the State of Tennessee and the Confederate States of America.
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 following temporary convention, agreement, and military league with the Confederate States, for the purpose of meeting pressing exigencies affecting the common rights, interests, and safety of said States and said Confederacy.First: Until the said State shall become a member of said Confederacy, according to the constitutions of both powers, the whole military force and military operations, offensive and defensive, of said State, in the impending conflict with the United States, shall be under the chief control and direction of the President of the Confederate States upon the same basis, principles, and footing as if said State were now and during the intervals a member of the said Confederacy. Said force, together with those of the Confederate States, is to be employed for the common defence.
Second: The State of Tennessee will, upon becoming a member of said Confederacy, under the permanent constitution of said Confederate States, if the same shall occur, turn over to said Confederate States all the public property, naval stores, and munitions of war of which she may then be in possession, acquired from the United States, on the same terms and in the same manner as the other States of said Confederacy have done in like cases.
Third: Whatever expenditures of money, if any, the said State of Tennessee shall make before she becomes a member of said Confederacy, shall be met and provided for by the Confederate States.
This convention, entered into and agreed on in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, on the seventh day of May, A. D. 1861, by Henry W. Hilliard, the duly authorized Commissioner to act in the matter for the Confederate States, and Gustavus A. Henry, Archibald W. O. Totten, and Washington Barrow, commissioners duly authorized to act in like manner for the State of Tennessee. The whole subject to the approval and ratification of the proper authorities of both governmants, respectively.
In testimony whereof, the parties aforesaid have herewith set their hands and seals, the day and year aforesaid, in duplicate originals.
Henry W. Hilliard, [Seal.]
Commissioner for the Confederate States of America.
Gustavus A. Henry, [Seal.]
A. O. W. Totten, [Seal.]
Washington Barrow, [Seal.]
Commissioners on the part of Tennessee.
Joint resolution ratifying the league.
--Nashville Banner, May 8.
The Ordinance passed.
The deed is done! And a black deed it is — the Legislature of Tennessee, in secret session, passed an ordinance of secession — voting the State out of the Federal Union, and changing the federal relations of a State, thereby affecting, to the great injury of the people, their most important earthly interests. The men who did this deed in secret conclave, were elected two years ago, and they were elected and sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, and the obligations of that oath must rest upon them until their successors are elected. They have dared to pass an ordinance that is really unconstitutional, unjustifiable, and is, upon the whole, a vile act of usurpation. That they say that the extraordinary emergency of the times demanded this outrage, will not do with those of us who know the State of Tennessee has not been oppressed, and is not invaded by a hostile foe, and is not likely to be unless we invite or provoke an attack. It has been the policy of all usurpers, in all ages, to excuse themselves for the exercise of arbitrary power, intended at once to oppress the people and to deprive them of their liberties.The apology for doing this deed in secret session is, that it would not do to act with open doors, and thereby let the United States Government know what was transpiring. This is only a pretext for this act — it was to prevent the People of Tennessee from knowing what vile work they were engaged in, and applying the remedy. They did not want the real people to read the speeches of Union men delivered in that body, who gave reasons, numerous and strong, why Tennessee should not go into Jeff. Davis's repudiating Confederacy. But unprincipled politicians have resolved upon governing the people, and to induce them to submit, they must keep them in the dark as to their vile schemes.
In June, we are called upon to vote for or against this Ordinance of Secession, and all trains of evil, such as enormous taxes, and the raising of fifty thousand troops! Will the people ratify it, or will they reject it? Let every man, old and young, halt and blind, contrive to be at the polls on that day. If we lose then, our liberties are gone, and we are swallowed up by a military despotism more odious than any now existing in any monarchy of Europe!--Knoxville Whig, May 11.
Tennessee seceded.
Tennessee is disenthralled at last. Freedom has again crowned her with a fresh and fadeless wreath. She has broken through the meshes of tyranny. She has shaken off the shackles which tyrants and usurpers were fastening upon her that they might reduce her to helpless and hopeless bondage. She has left a Union in which she was no longer an equal. She has dissolved her connection with States bent on her subjugation and destruction. She has thrown off the yoke of a Government prostituted to the vile purposes of injustice and oppression. Nobly has she asserted her independence and vindicated her sovereignty.She has taken her place in the Southern constellation. She has added another star to the flag of the Confederate States, which floats over the dome of her capitol, the proud and unsullied emblem of Southern nationality. She has united her destiny with a sisterhood of [205] States, identified with her in sympathies, in interests, and institutions — with the new born republic of the South, which, like another Mars, has sprung into existence full armed — a young giant, whose tread is already on the pathway of victory and national renown; whose prowess, power, and resources challenge the recognition of civilized nations, and to whom a future of unexampled prosperity and glory has already opened.
We congratulate Tennessee and the Confederate States upon the mutual good fortune of this auspicious alliance. She brings into the new republic the rich dowry of her unsullied patriotism, her ancestral valor, and her mighty and varied resources, while from it she receives the protection and respectability of a powerful and rising nationality.
We hail this decisive step of Tennessee, as the glorious realization of patriotic hopes, long and fondly cherished by us, amid the gloom of discouragement and despondency, as the fruition of years of struggle, and toil, and anxious, and often despairing effort, in the cause of Southern rights.
There is a moral sublimity in the triumph of a great cause that stirs the deepest emotions of the soul. Not in the narrow spirit of political partisanship have we battled in this cause, but as a son of the South, prompted alone by an ardent desire for her safety, her freedom, and her honor. The exultant pleasure of this triumph is enhanced by the reflection that it is shared by all classes of our fellow-citizens alike, without reference to former party distinctions; all past political prejudices being obliterated by the noble and irrepressible patriotism which now animates and unites all Tennesseeans in the common cause of their State and section.
This important change in the political relations of Tennessee creates new and weighty duties and responsibilities, while it awakens new hopes and aspirations. At this moment they urge her to instant and strenuous action. The advent of the new republic has invoked the red thunderbolts of war upon its devoted head. It is no sooner born than it is called upon to defend its right to exist. It seems destined to pass through the fiery ordeal of the fiercest and bloodiest strife which, perhaps, history has yet recorded.
The faithless, meddling, and overbearing North, foiled in her long-cherished scheme of sectional domination, usurpation, and tyranny, by the unexpected revolt of the South, gnashes her teeth, and threatens the extermination of her victim. Her people are frenzied with rage; the hell-born passions of avarice, hate, and revenge, sway her infuriated mobs, thirsting for the blood of a people from whom they have received only benefits and favors. A spirit of wild and bloody atrocity, akin to that which raged in the French Revolution, has seized the entire Northern people, extinguishing at once all the sentiments of Christianity, and the feelings of humanity. Schemes of fiendish cruelty, at which hell itself might turn pale and stand aghast, and demons blush, are now discussed and approved by the sleek and sanctimonious clergy of the North. Even woman, repressing the instinctive humanity and tenderness of her nature, clamors for the massacre of Southern women and children. An imbecile, but perfidious and atrocious Government, leads this wild and bloody raid upon the south. Its armies are now mustering and advancing upon us, with the insolent boast upon their lips that they will either subjugate or exterminate us.
Such are the black and threatening clouds of danger, charged with the lightnings of destruction, which now darken the horizon of the Southern Republic. Tennessee, in this tremendous crisis, will do her entire duty. Great sacrifices are demanded of her, and they will be cheerfully made. Her blood and treasure are offered without stint at the shrine of Southern freedom. She counts not the cost at which independence must be bought. The gallant volunteer State of the South, her brave sons now rushing to the standard of the Southern Confederacy, will sustain by their unflinching valor and deathless devotion, her ancient renown achieved on so many battle fields. In fact our entire people — men, women, and children — have engaged in this fight, and are animated by the single, heroic, and indomitable resolve to perish rather than submit to the despicable invader now threatening us with subjugation. They will ratify the ordinance of secession, amid the smoke and carnage of battle; they will write out their endorsement of it with the blood of their foe — they will enforce it at the point of the bayonet and the sword.
Welcome, thrice welcome, glorious Tennessee, to the thriving family of Southern Confederate States!--Memphis Avalanche, May 6.
