Executive Department,
Raleigh, N.C., April 15th, 1861.
To Simon Cameron,
Secretary of War.
Sir: Your dispatch is received, and if genuine, which its extraordinary character leads me to doubt, I have to say in reply, that I regard that levy of troops made by the administration for the purpose of subjugating the States of the South as in violation of the Constitution, and as a gross usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina. I will reply more in detail when I receive your "call."
John W. Ellis,
Governor of North Carolina.
It is to be remarked that as early as the 19th of March, Senator Thos. L. Clingman had dispatched Gov. Ellis, to wit:
"It is believed that the North Carolina forts will immediately be garrisoned by Lincoln."
CHAPTER III.
Mr. Lincoln's "call" for troops excited indignation and alarm throughout the South; and "law-abiding" North Carolina had now to decide what it was her duty to do.
On the 17th of April, Gov. Ellis issued a proclamation convening the General Assembly to meet in special session on the first day of May.
On the evening of the day of the issuing of the proclamation, Capt. John Sloan, commanding the Grays, received orders from Gov. Ellis, "to report with his company, with three days' rations, at Goldsboro, N.C." This order was countermanded on the following morning, "to report to Col. C. C. Tew, commanding the garrison at Fort Macon."