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The Legislature was as eager as before to execute the will of the Governor. It embodied his recommendations in an act passed May 6, 1861.ssss1 This act contained two important provisions. The first was:

“Declaration of Independence and Ordinance dissolving the federal relations between the State of Tennessee and the United States of America.

“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Federal Union of the United States of America are hereby abrogated and annulled, and that all obligation on our part be withdrawn therefrom; and we do hereby resume all the rights, functions, and powers which by any of said laws and ordinances were conveyed to the Government of the United States, and absolve ourselves from all obligations, restraints, duties, incurred thereto; and do hereby henceforth become a free, sovereign, and independent State.“