This ordinance was to be submitted to a direct vote of the people. Two sets of tickets were to be prepared; one set marked Separation, the other Non-Separation. Those favoring the ordinance were to vote the former ticket, those opposed, the latter. The act of May 6th further provided for the submission at the same election of the question as to whether Tennessee, if it severed its relations with the Union, should join the Confederacy. This question was also embodied in the form of an Ordinance.
But the Governor and the Legislature did not wait for the popular verdict upon these Ordinances. As early as May 7th, they extended an invitation to the Confederacy to select Nashville as its capital city. A few days later a still more extraordinary step was taken. Governor Harris, acting under a joint resolution of the Legislature, appointed three commissioners to negotiate a military league with the Confederate authorities. These commissioners, representing the State of Tennessee, and Mr. Henry W. Hilliard, an agent of the Confederacy, drew up the following agreement:
“Convention between the State of Tennessee and Confederate States of America.[6]
“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 common rights, interests, and safety of said State 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, principle, and footing as if said State were now during the interval a member of said Confederacy, said force, together with that of the Confederate States, to be employed in common defence.
“Secondly. The State of Tennessee will, upon becoming a member of said Confederacy under the permanent Constitution of said Confederate States, if the same shall ever occur, turn over to the Confederate States all the public property acquired from the United States on the same terms as the other States of said Confederacy have done in like case.”
This agreement was laid before the Legislature in a special message, and almost unanimously ratified. Its provisions were promptly executed. The vote of the people upon the Declaration of Independence and the Ordinance adopting the Provisional Constitution of the Confederacy did not occur till the eighth of June. The result of the vote, as shown by the official returns, was as follows:
| Separation. | No Separation. | |
| East Tennessee | 14,780 | 32,923 |
| Middle Tennessee | 58,265 | 7,956 |
| West Tennessee | 29,127 | 6,117 |
| Camps | 6,246 | |
| Total | 108,418 | 46,996 |
| Representation. | No Representation. | |
| East Tennessee | 14,061 | 32,962 |
| Middle Tennessee | 58,198 | 8,298 |
| West Tennessee | 28,912 | 6,104 |
| Camps | 6,340 | |
| Total | 107,511 | 47,364 |
Immediately after the election, Gov. Harris issued a proclamation announcing Tennessee’s withdrawal from the Union. This was followed by the proclamation of Jefferson Davis, officially declaring that Tennessee had become a member of the Confederacy. On the first of August the State adopted the permanent Confederate Constitution by vote of 83,133 for, 30,357 against.