7. On the 1st of January, 1861, the Legislature then in regular session passed, by a large majority in each House, an act declaring that in its opinion the condition of the country was so perilous "that the sovereign people of the State should assemble in convention to effect an honorable adjustment of the difficulties whereby the Federal Union is endangered, or otherwise to determine what action will best preserve the honor and promote the interest of North Carolina." 8. At the same time that the delegates were to be elected the act required that the sense of the people should be taken whether there should be a convention at all or not. The election was held on 28th of February, 1861, and upon the question of convention or no convention, the official count showed a majority of 194 votes against convention, that is to say, 45,509 votes for convention and 45,603 votes against convention. The vote of Davie county, which was not received in time to be counted, would have increased the majority against convention some 200 votes. 9. How the delegates elected were divided in sentiment on the day of election cannot be ascertained, nor was such division to be relied upon, for changes were daily taking place, and men, no matter how reluctantly, were rapidly coming to believe that in United action by the South lay the only hope for the future. 10. In April, President Lincoln, in consequence of the attack upon and capture of Fort Sumter, required of Governor Ellis North Carolina's proportion of an army of seventy five thousand men, which was to be used in the coercion of the seceded States. This demand Governor Ellis promptly refused; and he at once convened the Legislature in special session, declaring in his proclamation that the time for action had come, and, upon his recommendation, twenty thousand volunteers were called for by the General Assembly to sustain North Carolina in her course. 11. A State Convention was called by the Legislature on the first of May, and met on the 20th of May, 1861; in the hall of the House of Commons. On this anniversary of the Mecklenburg Declaration the Ordinance of Secession was passed, and North Carolina made haste to connect herself with the " Confederate States of America." 12. The Ordinance of Secession was as follows "AN ORDINANCE DISSOLVING THE UNION BETWEEN THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA AND THE OTHER STATES UNITED WITH HER UNDER THE COMPACT OF GOVERNMENT ENTITLED 'THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. ' "We, the people of the State of North Carolina, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance adopted by the State of North Carolina in the Convention of 1789, whereby the Constitution of the United States was ratified and adopted; and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly ratifying and adopting amendments to the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded and abrogated.