DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND ORDINANCE dissolving the federal relations
between the State of Tennessee and the United States of America.
First. We, the people of the State of Tennessee, waiving any expression of opinion as to the
abstract doctrine of secession, but asserting the right, as a free and independent people, to alter,
reform, or abolish our form of government in such manner as we think proper, do ordain and
declare that all the laws and ordinances by which the State of Tennessee became a member of the
Federal Union of the United States of America are hereby abrogated and annulled, and that all the
rights, functions, and powers which by any of said laws and ordinances were conveyed to the
Government of the United States, and to absolve ourselves from all the obligations, restraints, and
duties incurred thereto; and do hereby henceforth become a free, sovereign, and independent
State.
Second. We furthermore declare and ordain that article 10, sections 1 and 2, of the constitution of
the State of Tennessee, which requires members of the General Assembly and all officers, civil
and military, to take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States be, and the same are
hereby, abrogated and annulled, and all parts of the constitution of the State of Tennessee making
citizenship of the United States a qualification for office and recognizing the Constitution of the
United States as the supreme law of this State are in like manner abrogated and annulled.
Third. We furthermore ordain and declare that all rights acquired and vested under the
Constitution of the United States, or under any act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof, or
under any laws of this State, and not incompatible with this ordinance, shall remain in force and
have the same effect as if this ordinance had not been passed.
[sent to referendum 6 May 1861 by the legislature, and approved by the voters by a vote of
104,471 to 47,183 on 8 June 1861]
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