The North Carolina Convention.
[From the
Raleigh Register, May 22d.]
This body — the most important that has convened in this State since the one which set forth the famous declaration of 1775--met on Monday last, at 11 o'clock A. M., in the
Commons Hall of the
Capitol.
Considering that the election of delegates took place so recently, there was a remarkably full attendance of members, there being present 111 out of 120 elected.
The body is a remarkably fine looking and intelligent assemblage, and in it may be found a good deal of the first talent in the country.
Before the hour of meeting the gallery was densely crowded by ladies and gentlemen, and every place on the floor without the bar of the
House crammed with male spectators.
The venerable
Weldon N. Edwards who was bred at the feet of
Nathaniel Macon, was chosen to preside over the deliberations of the body, and
Walter L. Steele and
L. C. Edwards chosen as principal and assistant
Secretaries.
While there was some diversity of opinion as to the mode of
North Carolina's severing her connection with the
Federal Government, there was but one opinion as to her duty to do so, and do so that day. So, after a good deal of debate as to the mode she should adopt, a vote was taken at six o'clock P. M., by which it was unanimously declared that all connection between
North Carolina and the
Federal Government is, and ought to be, forever and totally dissolved.
When the
President, in his solemn and impressive way, announced the vote, there arose from the
House, lobbies and galleries, loud and prolonged cheers.
The
Ellis Light Artillery, in anticipation of the prompt passage of the Ordinance of Secession, had, at an early hour of the day, brought down from the Camp of Instruction their splendid battery, consisting of six brass field-pieces, and ranged them on the
Capitol Square, in front of the western portico of the
Capitol.
As soon as the
Convention had adopted the Ordinance the loud-mouthed cannon proclaimed the joyful tidings to the whole city and surrounding country, and instantly large numbers of our citizens might have been seen hurrying from every direction towards the
Capitol.
In a few minutes the
Capitol bell and the bells of all the churches united their voices in proclaiming the joyful news.
The Artillery, after firing one hundred guns in honor of the passage of the Ordinance, rested a few minutes.
Then ten guns, one for each of the other seceded States, were fired, followed by three cheers for each of those States; then a whole battery and nine cheers for
North Carolina; and then, the fact that the
Convention had adopted the
Constitution of the
Confederate States being ascertained, twenty guns were fired in honor of that event.
The enthusiasm of the large crowd that had gathered on the square was beyond our powers of description.
At night the mansion of the
Governor and the residences of several of our private citizens were brilliantly illuminated — after which all hands went to bed and slept soundly in the
Confederate States of America.
Few people outside of
North Carolina can say that they have been in one day the citizens of three distinct Governments.
Until six P. M., on Monday, they were citizens of the Federal Union.
From that time till 7 P. M., they were citizens of the independent Republic of
North Carolina; and after that, became citizens of the
Confederate States of America--a Government which, we trust in God, will exist in peace, prosperity, greatness and liberty, until the last syllable of recorded time.
