Tennessee Ordinance of Secession

File:1st National 11 Stars.png    Secession    File:1st National 11 Stars.png of the Confederate States of America (CSA) File:Confederate States of America.png Secession Begins: December 20, 1860 South Carolina Secession Complete: June 8, 1861 Tennessee Secession Documents:: South Carolina Ordinance of Secession Mississippi Declaration of Causes of Secession Mississippi Ordinance of Secession Florida Ordinance of Secession Alabama Ordinance of Secession Georgia Declaration of Causes of Secession Georgia Ordinance of Secession Louisiana Ordinance of Secession Texas Ordinance of Secession Arkansas Ordinance of Secession North Carolina Ordinance of Secession Virginia Ordinance of Secession Tennessee Ordinance of Secession Related Documents: Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States Constitution of the Confederate States of America

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND ORDINANCE dissolving the federal relations between the State of Tennessee and the United States of America.

First. We, the people of the State of Tennessee, waiving any expression of opinion as to the abstract doctrine of secession, but asserting the right, as a free and independent people, to alter, reform, or abolish our form of government in such manner as we think proper, do ordain and declare that all the laws and ordinances by which the State of Tennessee became a member of the Federal Union of the United States of America are hereby abrogated and annulled, and that all the rights, functions, and powers which by any of said laws and ordinances were conveyed to the Government of the United States, and to absolve ourselves from all the obligations, restraints, and duties incurred thereto; and do hereby henceforth become a free, sovereign, and independent State.

Second. We furthermore declare and ordain that article 10, sections 1 and 2, of the constitution of the State of Tennessee, which requires members of the General Assembly and all officers, civil and military, to take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States be, and the same are hereby, abrogated and annulled, and all parts of the constitution of the State of Tennessee making citizenship of the United States a qualification for office and recognizing the Constitution of the United States as the supreme law of this State are in like manner abrogated and annulled.

Third. We furthermore ordain and declare that all rights acquired and vested under the Constitution of the United States, or under any act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof, or under any laws of this State, and not incompatible with this ordinance, shall remain in force and have the same effect as if this ordinance had not been passed.

[ratified by a vote of 104,471 to 47,183 on June 8, 1861]

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