The 130 delegates to the Louisiana secession convention assembled in Baton Rouge. In a recent referendum Louisianans had voted 4,258 for unilateral action to withdraw from the Union, as opposed to a slightly more moderate option to act in concert with other slave states which received 3,978 votes. This, and the governor's seizure of federal forts and property over the previous two weeks made the convention's decision a foregone conclusion and on January 26, 1861 it voted 113 to 17 to secede immediately. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Edwin C. Bearrs, "The Seizure of the Forts and Public Property in Louisiana," in Arthur W. Bergeron, Civil War in Louisiana, Vol. II (Lafayette, LA: University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2004), 406-407.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating
