Arkansas Secedes from US Empire
05-06-1861
AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union now existing between the State of
Arkansas and the other States united with her under the compact entitled
"The Constitution of the United States of America."
Whereas, in addition to the well-founded causes of complaint set forth by this
convention, in resolutions adopted on the 11th of March, A.D. 1861, against
the sectional party now in power in Washington City, headed by Abraham
Lincoln, he has, in the face of resolutions passed by this convention pledging
the State of Arkansas to resist to the last extremity any attempt on the part of
such power to coerce any State that had seceded from the old Union,
proclaimed to the world that war should be waged against such States until
they should be compelled to submit to their rule, and large forces to
accomplish this have by this same power been called out, and are now being
marshaled to carry out this inhuman design; and to longer submit to such rule,
or remain in the old Union of the United States, would be disgraceful and
ruinous to the State of Arkansas:
Therefore we, the people of the State of Arkansas, in convention assembled,
do hereby declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That
the "ordinance and acceptance of compact" passed and approved by the
General Assembly of the State of Arkansas on the 18th day of October, A.D.
1836, whereby it was by said General Assembly ordained that by virtue of the
authority vested in said General Assembly by the provisions of the ordinance
adopted by the convention of delegates assembled at Little Rock for the
purpose of forming a constitution and system of government for said State,
the propositions set forth in "An act supplementary to an act entitled `An act
for the admission of the State of Arkansas into the Union, and to provide for
the due execution of the laws of the United States within the same, and for
other purposes,'" were freely accepted, ratified, and irrevocably confirmed,
articles of compact and union between the State of Arkansas and the United
States, and all other laws and every other law and ordinance, whereby the
State of Arkansas became a member of the Federal Union, be, and the same
are hereby, in all respects and for every purpose herewith consistent,
repealed, abrogated, and fully set aside; and the union now subsisting
between the State of Arkansas and the other States, under the name of the
United States of America, is hereby forever dissolved.
And we do further hereby declare and ordain, That the State of Arkansas
hereby resumes to herself 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 of the United States, and that she is in
full possession and exercise of all the rights and sovereignty which appertain
to a free and independent State.
We do further ordain and declare, That all rights acquired and vested under
the Constitution of the United States of America, or of any act or acts of
Congress, or treaty, or under any law of this State, and not incompatible with
this ordinance, shall remain in full force and effect, in nowise altered or
impaired, and have the same effect as if this ordinance had not been passed.
Adopted and passed in open convention on the 6th day of May, A.D. 1861.
Source: Official Records, Ser. IV, vol. 1, pp. 287-88.
Back
05-06-1861
AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union now existing between the State of
Arkansas and the other States united with her under the compact entitled
"The Constitution of the United States of America."
Whereas, in addition to the well-founded causes of complaint set forth by this
convention, in resolutions adopted on the 11th of March, A.D. 1861, against
the sectional party now in power in Washington City, headed by Abraham
Lincoln, he has, in the face of resolutions passed by this convention pledging
the State of Arkansas to resist to the last extremity any attempt on the part of
such power to coerce any State that had seceded from the old Union,
proclaimed to the world that war should be waged against such States until
they should be compelled to submit to their rule, and large forces to
accomplish this have by this same power been called out, and are now being
marshaled to carry out this inhuman design; and to longer submit to such rule,
or remain in the old Union of the United States, would be disgraceful and
ruinous to the State of Arkansas:
Therefore we, the people of the State of Arkansas, in convention assembled,
do hereby declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That
the "ordinance and acceptance of compact" passed and approved by the
General Assembly of the State of Arkansas on the 18th day of October, A.D.
1836, whereby it was by said General Assembly ordained that by virtue of the
authority vested in said General Assembly by the provisions of the ordinance
adopted by the convention of delegates assembled at Little Rock for the
purpose of forming a constitution and system of government for said State,
the propositions set forth in "An act supplementary to an act entitled `An act
for the admission of the State of Arkansas into the Union, and to provide for
the due execution of the laws of the United States within the same, and for
other purposes,'" were freely accepted, ratified, and irrevocably confirmed,
articles of compact and union between the State of Arkansas and the United
States, and all other laws and every other law and ordinance, whereby the
State of Arkansas became a member of the Federal Union, be, and the same
are hereby, in all respects and for every purpose herewith consistent,
repealed, abrogated, and fully set aside; and the union now subsisting
between the State of Arkansas and the other States, under the name of the
United States of America, is hereby forever dissolved.
And we do further hereby declare and ordain, That the State of Arkansas
hereby resumes to herself 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 of the United States, and that she is in
full possession and exercise of all the rights and sovereignty which appertain
to a free and independent State.
We do further ordain and declare, That all rights acquired and vested under
the Constitution of the United States of America, or of any act or acts of
Congress, or treaty, or under any law of this State, and not incompatible with
this ordinance, shall remain in full force and effect, in nowise altered or
impaired, and have the same effect as if this ordinance had not been passed.
Adopted and passed in open convention on the 6th day of May, A.D. 1861.
Source: Official Records, Ser. IV, vol. 1, pp. 287-88.
Back