Secession (Muzzey, 1920)

Within six weeks after the secession of South Carolina the states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas had severed their connection with the Union. Delegates from six of these seven " sovereign states " met at Montgomery, Alabama, February 4, 1861, and organized a new Confederacy. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was chosen president, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia vice president. A constitution was drawn up and submitted to the several states of the Confederacy for ratification. This constitution was very similar to the Constitution of the United States, except that slavery was expressly sanctioned, Congress was forbidden to levy protective duties, the president was elected for a term of six years without eligibility for reelection, and the members of the cabinet were given the right to speak on the floor of Congress. A Confederate flag, the " stars and bars," was adopted. A tax of one eighth of a cent a pound on exported cotton was levied. President Davis was authorized to raise an army of 100,000 men and secure a loan of $15,000,000, and a committee of three, with the impetuous Yancey of Alabama as chairman, was sent abroad to secure the friendship and alliance of European courts. Both Davis and Stephens believed that the South would have the fight "a long and bloody war" to establish its independence.