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.