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.