ARIZONA ORDINANCE OF SECESSION
Passed by the People of Arizona in Convention Assembled at La Mesilla, Arizona Territory, March 16, 1861
"WHEREAS,
a sectional party of the North has disregarded the Constitution of the United
States, violated the rights of the Southern States, and heaped wrongs and
indignities upon their people; and WHEREAS, the Government of the United States
has heretofore failed to give us adequate protection against the savages within
our midst and has denied us an administration of the laws, and that security for
life, liberty, and property which is due from all governments to the people; and
WHEREAS, it is an inherent, inalienable right in all people to modify, alter, or
abolish their form of government whenever it fails in the legitimate objects of
its institution, or when it is subversive thereof; and WHEREAS, in a government
of federated, sovereign States, each State has a right to withdraw from the
confederacy whenever the treaty by which the league is formed, is broken;
and WHEREAS, the Territories belonging to said league in common should be
divided when the league is broken, and should be attached to the separating
States according to their geographical position and political identity; and
WHEREAS, Arizona naturally belongs to the Confederate States of America (who
have rightfully and lawfully withdrawn from said league), both geographically
and politically, by ties of a common interest and a common cause; and
WHEREAS we, the citizens of that part of New Mexico called Arizona, in the
present distracted state of political affairs between the North and the South,
deem it our duty as citizens of the United States to make known our opinions and
intentions; therefore be it...
RESOLVED,
That our feelings and interests are with the Southern States , and that although
we deplore the division of the Union, yet we cordially indorse the course
pursued by the seceded Southern States.
RESOLVED,
That geographically and naturally we are bound to the South, and to her we look
for protection; and as the Southern States have formed a Confederacy, it is our
earnest desire to be attached to that Confederacy as a Territory.
RESOLVED,
That we do not desire to be attached as a Territory to any State seceding
separately from the Union, but to and under the protection of a Confederacy of
the Southern States.
RESOLVED,
That the recent enactment of the Federal Congress, removing the mail service
from the Atlantic to the Pacific States from the Southern to the Central or
Northern route, is another powerful reason for us to ask the Southern
Confederate States of America for a continuation of the postal service over the
Butterfield or El Paso route, at the earliest period.
RESOLVED,
That it shall be the duty of the President of this Convention to order an
election for a delegate to the Congress of the Confederate States of America,
when he is informed that the States composing said Confederacy have ordered an
election for members of Congress.
RESOLVED,
That we will not recognize the present Black Republican Administration, and that
we will resist any officers appointed to this Territory by said Administration
with whatever means in our power.
RESOLVED,
That the citizens residing in the western portion of this Territory are invited
to join us in this movement.
RESOLVED,
That the proceedings of this Convention be published in the Mesilla Times, and
that a copy thereof be forwarded to the President of the Congress of the
Confederate States of America, with the request that the same be laid before
Congress."