“Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God.” Aiming to promote a spirit of order and peace, the minister who conducted these religious services at Knoxville preached that morning upon the importance of right government and obedience to it--of using freedom, not in the service of evil passions, but of neighborly, kind affections, from the apposite words: “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” As if, however, the hour for discord had come, and its footsteps would not tarry, the result of the day was the loss to the church of several leading families whose sympathies were strongly with “the South,” including that of a church warden. He was a worthy citizen and sincere christian, but he “could no longer attend as a worshipper and listen to the ‘prayer for the President of the United States and all in authority,’” as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer. The prayer dates back to the year 1789. The agitations and mutual wrath of parties at the locality, each of them being strong, were sensibly increased by the secession of Virginia and the forcible seizures of Harper’s Ferry and the Portsmouth Navy Yard, which followed not long after the Baltimore fight. Notwithstanding the people of Tennessee had voted against secession in February, 1861, by a majority of 60,000, now, in the absence of any later expression of their will on the subject through an authorized channel, the State Government entered into a military league with the Southern Confederacy and passed an ordinance of secession subject to the ratification of the people at the polls on the eighth of June. Under that league troops were enlisted throughout the State, and so without having seceded or become a member of the Confederacy, Tennessee was placed independently in actual rebellion against the United States. Some eight hundred of these soldiers were stationed in camp near Knoxville. One day Andrew Johnson and Thomas A. R. Nelson addressed the people on the principal business street of the town, the court-room being too small to receive them. The meeting was disturbed by the loud music of a Confederate band from a neighboring hotel, and by the threatening demeanor of armed men who had just been addressed by secession orators and were parading the streets. A bloody collision was only prevented by the friendly interposition of peaceably disposed men from both parties. The same two Union leaders were soon afterwards stopped in addressing the people at Blountville in the strong Democratic county of Sullivan, and compelled to desist.