The New York Times, January 21, 1861
GEORGIA DECLARED OUT OF THE UNION.; PASSAGE OF THE SECESSION ORDINANCE BY THE STATE CONVENTION
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga., Saturday, Jan. 19.
The State Convention adopted the secession ordinance at 2 o’clock this afternoon, by Yeas, 208; Nays, 89. It is as follows:
An ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of Georgia and other States united with her under the compact of Government entitled the Constitution of the United States.
We, the people of the State of Georgia, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinances adopted by the people of the State of Georgia in Convention in 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United States was assented to, 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acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly ratifying and adopting amendments to the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded and abrogated.
And we do further declare and ordain that the Union now subsisting between the State of Georgia and other States, under the name of the United States, is hereby dissolved, and that the State of Georgia is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.
A motion to postpone the operation of the Ordinance until the 3d of March was lost by about thirty majority.
ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS and HERSCHEL V. JOHNSON are among those who voted against the Ordinance.
A resolution was adopted to continue the present postal and revenue system until it shall be ordered otherwise; also to continue all the civil Federal officers.
The Ordinance of secession was ordered to be engrossed on parchment, and to be signed on Monday at noon.
MILLEDGEVILLE, Saturday, Jan. 19 — 9 P.M.
The Convention has been in secret session nearly all day.
BEN. HILL introduced a substitute for the Secession Ordinance, but it was lost. Subsequently he voted for the Ordinance, declaring as he did so that as Georgia had determined for secession he would share her fate for weal or woe.
Judge LINTON STEPHENS said that while he approved of the Ordinance he saw no reason for its adoption now. He therefore would not vote for or sign it.
Unusual demonstrations of approbation are being made here to-night in honor of the adoption of the Ordinance of Secession, including the firing of cannon, the letting off of sky rockets, the burning of torches, and music and speeches.