The seven seceding states meeting in Montgomery, Alabama produced a provisional constitution for a new confederation.  Important differences between the U.S. Constitution included the abolition of protective tariffs, the protection of slavery, a Supreme Court sitting only when Congress called it, and the executive initiating money bills. The Convention then declared itself a Provisional Congress and sat till March 15, 1861. (By John Osborne)  

The Convention of Seceding States opened at the State House in Montgomery, Alabama with six states represented.  Texas joined within days.  Georgia sent the most prestigious delegation and Howell Cobb was elected as chair.  Within a week it produced a provisional constitution, selected a president, and declared itself as sitting as the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States. (By John Osborne)  

The Washington Peace Conference met at Willard's Hotel in the capital.  Made up of 132 delegates from twenty-one states, but lacking any representation from seceding states, with former president John Tyler in the chair, the gathering fashioned a set of constitutional amendments designed to appease the South and preserve the Union.  Its proposals were voted down in Congress on March 1, 1861.  (By John Osborne)  

The 152 delegates were elected on February 4, 1861.  Extremists on both sides were in the minority and most favored caution or compromise.  This would change as events unfolded. The Convention first met at the House of Delegates, then the Mechanics' Hall in Richmond, and returned to the statehouse on April 8, 1861.  It sat till May 1, 1861, having voted an Ordinance of Secession on April 17, 1861. (By John Osborne)

One hundred and fifty-two delegates for a Virginia Convention on the crisis were elected across the state.  Results indicated that extremists on both sides were in the minority and the great percentage of the newly elected favored caution or some kind of compromise.  The Convention met at the Mechanics' Hall in Richmond on February 13, 1861 and sat till May 1, 1861 having voted an Ordinance of Secession on April 17, 1861. (By John Osborne)

The secession convention of the state of Texas had gathered four days earlier in the hall of the House of Representatives at the the State House in Austin.  Though its detractors later claimed it as unrepresentative, with less than half of the state's counties represented, the gathering voted in an Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 166 to 7 and Texas left the Union. The convention decided to submit the ordinance to a state vote, to take place on February 23, 1861, although secession went ahead in the meantime. (By John Osborne)