John Dimitry , A. M., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 10.1, Louisiana
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

The convention, instructed by a popular vote of 4,258 for separate State action against 3,978 for united Southern action, presented an according majority of 280. The vote had been light on both sides; but the feeling for immediate secession was not to be mistaken.

With ex-Governor Alexander Mouton president, the convention met in the hall of representatives, Baton Rouge, January 23, 1861. Events thronged. The next day, the 24th, Hon. John Perkins, Jr., of Madison, on behalf of the committee of fifteen of which he was the chairman, reported to the convention the following ordinance. It was the solitary voice which Louisiana, as the mother of her children, addressed to them from her crisis of 861.

An ordinance:

To dissolve the union between the State of Louisiana and other States united with her under the compact entitled the Constitution of the United States:

We, the people of the State of Louisiana, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the Ordinance passed by us in Convention on 22d of November, A. D. 1811, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America and the amendments of said Constitution were adopted, and all laws and ordinances by which the State of Louisiana became a member of the Federal union, be, and the same are hereby, repealed and abrogated; and that the Union now subsisting between Louisiana and other States, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved.

We do further declare and ordain, that the State of Louisiana hereby resumes all rights and powers heretofore delegated to the government of the United States of America; that her citizens are absolved from all allegiance to said government; and that she is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which appertain to an Independent State.

We do further declare and ordain, that all rights acquired and vested under the Constitution of the United States or any act of Congress, or treaty, or under any law of this State, and not incompatible with this ordinance,