On the 16th of January, the State Sovereignty convention met in
Milledgeville, Ga. The election had taken place shortly after the
delivery of Senator Toombs' farewell address, and Georgia had answered
to his call in the election of delegates by giving a vote of 50,243 in
favor of secession, and 39,123 against it. The convention was presided
over by George W. Crawford, who had lived in retirement since the death
of President Taylor in 1850, and who was called on to lend his prestige
and influence in favor of the rights of his State. The convention went
into secret session, and when the doors were opened, Hon. Eugenius A.
Nisbet of Bibb offered a resolution, "That in the opinion of this
convention, it is the right and duty of Georgia to secede from the
Union." On the passage of this, the yeas were 165 and the noes 130. Mr.
Toombs voted "yes," and Messrs. Hill, Johnson, and Stephens, "no." Next
day the committee of seventeen, through Judge Nisbet, reported the
Ordinance of Secession. It was short and pointed; it simply declared
that the people of the State of Georgia, in convention assembled,
repealed the ordinance of 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United
States was ratified and adopted. The Union was declared dissolved, so
far as the State of Georgia was concerned, and the State to be in full
possession of all those rights of sovereignty that belonged to a free
and independent State. On the passage of this ordinance, the yeas were
208, and the noes, 89. Messrs. Toombs and Hill "yes," and Mr. Stephens
"no." At 2.15 P. M. on the 19th of January, a signal gun was fired, and
the "Stars and Stripes" lowered from the State Capitol. One moment
later, the white colonial flag of Georgia fluttered to the winds, and
the State was in uproar. The news flashed to the utmost corners of the
commonwealth. Guns were fired, bells rung, and men were beside
themselves. The night only intensified this carnival of joy. There were
some men who shook their heads and doubted the wisdom of this step, and
there were women and little children who regarded these demonstrations
with awe. They did not comprehend what was meant by "going out of the
Union," and by some inscrutable instinct feared the result of such an
act. The old Union sentiment was, perhaps, stronger in Georgia than in
any other Southern State. Georgia was the youngest of the thirteen
States, the last of the commonwealth to come into the national compact.
Her charter from the Cro