School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time

by John W. Moore

4. It was seen at an early period of the contest, that the bulk of the Southern people would be found supporting Breckinridge and Lane. * It was generally held in all the slave-holding States that the election of Mr. Lincoln would be significant of a purpose among Northern men to disregard their rights, and that the inauguration of the abolition policy by the Federal officers would compel and justify the secession of the Southern States from the Union.

*Joseph Lane was born in Buncombe county in this State, and was the cousin of Colonel Joel Lane, who once owned the lands upon which Raleigh was built. He had served gallantly as a Brigadier General in Mexico, afterwards in Congress, and as Governor of Oregon.

5. When, in November, 1860, it was known that the Republicans had triumphed in the national election, and that Abraham Lincoln would be chosen President of the United States by a majority of the electors in the different State electoral colleges, then it was realized that the extreme Southern States would, at an early period, sever their connection with the government at Washington.

1861.

6. South Carolina and others said that protection of their property would now be impossible in the Union, and therefore, before the inauguration of President Lincoln, on March 4th, 1861, seven States had assembled conventions, and by their ordinances declared the ties formerly binding them to the Republic of the United States null and void.

7. On the 1st of January, 1861, the Legislature then in regular session passed, by a large majority in each House, an act declaring that in its opinion the condition of the country was so perilous "that the sovereign people of the State should assemble in convention to effect an honorable adjustment of the difficulties whereby the Federal Union is endangered, or otherwise to determine what action will best preserve the honor and promote the interest of North Carolina."

8. At the same time that the delegates were to be elected the act required that the sense of the people should be taken whether there should be a convention at all or not. The election was held on 28th of February, 1861, and upon the question of convention or no convention, the official count showed a majority of 194 votes against convention, that is to say, 45,509 votes for convention and 45,603 votes against convention. The vote of Davie county, which was not received in time to be counted, would have increased the majority against convention some 200 votes.

9. How the delegates elected were divided in sentiment on the day of election cannot be ascertained, nor was such division to be relied upon, for changes were daily taking place, and men, no matter how reluctantly, were rapidly coming to believe that in United action by the South lay the only hope for the future.

10. In April, President Lincoln, in consequence of the attack upon and capture of Fort Sumter, required of Governor Ellis North Carolina's proportion of an army of seventy five thousand men, which was to be used in the coercion of the seceded States. This demand Governor Ellis promptly refused; and he at once convened the Legislature in special session, declaring in his proclamation that the time for action had come, and, upon his recommendation, twenty thousand volunteers were called for by the General Assembly to sustain North Carolina in her course.

11. A State Convention was called by the Legislature on the first of May, and met on the 20th of May, 1861; in the hall of the House of Commons. On this anniversary of the Mecklenburg Declaration the Ordinance of Secession was passed, and North Carolina made haste to connect herself with the " Confederate States of America."