Governor and ex-United States Senator Alexander Mouton, a man of high
character. I represented my own parish, St. Charles, and was appointed
chairman of the Military and Defense Committee, on behalf of which two
ordinances were reported and passed: one, to raise two regiments; the
other, to authorize the Governor to expend a million of dollars in the
purchase of arms and munitions. The officers of the two regiments were
to be appointed by the Governor, and the men to be enlisted for five
years, unless sooner discharged. More would have been desirable in the
way of raising troops, but the temper of men's minds did not then
justify the effort. The Governor declined to use his authority to
purchase arms, assured as he was on all sides that there was no danger
of war, and that the United States arsenal at Baton Rouge, completely in
our power, would furnish more than we could need. It was vainly urged in
reply that the stores of the arsenal were almost valueless, the arms
being altered flintlock muskets, and the accouterments out of date. The
current was too strong to stem.

The Convention, by an immense majority of votes, adopted an ordinance
declaring that Louisiana ceased to be a State within the Union. Indeed,
similar action having already been taken by her neighbors, Louisiana of
necessity followed. At the time and since, I marveled at the joyous and
careless temper in which men, much my superiors in sagacity and
experience, consummated these acts. There appeared the same general
_gaite de coeur_ that M. Ollivier claimed for the Imperial Ministry
when war was declared against Prussia. The attachment of northern and
western people to the Union; their superiority in numbers, in wealth,
and especially in mechanical resources; the command of the sea; the lust
of rule and territory always felt by democracies, and nowhere to a
greater degree than in the South--all these facts were laughed to scorn,
or their mention was ascribed to timidity and treachery.

As soon as the Convention adjourned, finding myself out of harmony with
prevailing opinion as to the certainty of war and necessity for
preparation, I retired to my estate, determined to accept such
responsibility only as came to me unsought.

The inauguration of President Lincoln; the confederation of South
Carolina, Georgia, and the five Gulf States; the attitude of the border
slave States, hoping to mediate; the assembling of Confederate forces
at Pensacola, Charleston,