The East Tennessee Convention was an assembly of Southern Unionist delegates primarily from East Tennessee that met on three occasions during the Civil War. The convention most notably declared the secessionist actions taken by the Tennessee state government on the eve of the war unconstitutional, and requested that East Tennessee, where Union support remained strong, be allowed to form a separate state that would remain part of the United States split from the rest of Confederate Tennessee (a la West Virginia). The state legislature denied this request, and the Confederate Army occupied the region in late 1861.Eric Lacy, Vanquished Volunteers: East Tennessee Sectionalism from Statehood to Secession (Johnson City, Tenn.: East Tennessee State University Press, 1965), pp. 122-126, 217-233.
The convention first met in Knoxville on May 30–31, 1861, in response to the state government's "Declaration of Independence" from the United States and formation of a military league with the Confederacy. Congressman T. A. R. Nelson was elected president of the convention, and resolutions were adopted denouncing the state government's actions.Proceedings of the East Tennessee Convention (H. Barry Book Company, 1861). Accessed at the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection, 14 December 2014. The convention met for the second time in Greeneville from June 17 to June 20, 1861, after Tennessee had voted to secede from the Union. This second meeting produced a memorial to the state government requesting East Tennessee be allowed to separate from Tennessee. The convention met for a final time in Knoxville from April 12 to April 16, 1864, to address the Emancipation Proclamation and the ten percent plan. This final meeting was marked by bitter divisions over the issue of slavery.Charles F. Bryan, Jr., "A Gathering of Tories: The East Tennessee Conventions of 1861," Tennessee Historical Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Spring 1980), pp. 27-48.Oliver Perry Temple, "The Knoxville-Greeneville Convention of 1861," East Tennessee and the Civil War (R. Clarke Company, 1899), pp. 340-365.
Although it failed in its goal of establishing a Union-aligned state in East Tennessee, the convention played an important role in solidifying leadership and unity of purpose for the region's Unionists. Many of its delegates would serve in federal, state and local offices during the postwar period.
Background
Throughout the first half of the 19th century, East Tennessee was frequently at odds with Tennessee's two other grand divisions, Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee. Many East Tennesseans felt the state legislature showed persistent favoritism toward the other two divisions, especially over funding for internal improvements. In the early 1840s, several East Tennessee leaders, among them Congressman (and future president) Andrew Johnson, led a movement to form a separate state in East Tennessee known as "Franklin." Though this movement was unsuccessful, the idea that East Tennessee should be a separate state periodically resurfaced over the subsequent two decades.
From the late 1830s until the early 1850s, Tennessee was politically divided between the Democratic Party and the Whig Party, with the Whigs drawing much of their support from East Tennessee. The collapse of the Whig Party over the issue of slavery in the mid-1850s left East Tennessee's Whigs in a difficult position. Most Northern Whigs joined the new Republican Party, but Southern Whigs generally found this unpalatable due to the Republicans' anti-slavery sentiments. Some prominent East Tennessee Whigs switched their allegiance to the Democratic Party, though most turned to third party movements, such as the American Party ("Know Nothings"). By the late 1850s, former Whigs, Know Nothings, and a few disgruntled Democrats had formed the Opposition Party to counter rising secessionist sentiment.Phillip Langsdon, Tennessee: A Political History (Franklin, Tenn.: Hillsboro Press, 2000), pp. 140–149.
Gubernatorial elections in Tennessee had been very competitive during the two decades prior to the election of Isham G. Harris in 1857. The six previous elections had all been decided by less than 2,500 votes (out of over 110,000 votes cast).Charles A. Miller, Tennessee Blue Book (Marshall and Bruce, 1890), p. 170. Whigs relied heavily on East Tennessee and Democrats relied on Middle Tennessee, with West Tennessee generally split. As the sectionalist conflict over the issue of slavery heated up in the late 1850s, however, sentiments in West Tennessee began to shift in favor of the Democrats. Harris, a staunch pro-slavery Southern Democrat, was elected by over 12,000 votes in 1857, and over 8,000 votes in 1859. Democrats also gained control of both chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly in the 1859 cycle.
During the 1860 presidential election, East Tennessee's former Whigs turned to the Constitutional Union Party, a third party which rejected both secession and abolition. This party's candidate, John Bell, was a long-time Whig and native of Tennessee. After Abraham Lincoln won the election in November 1860, Southern Democrats, convinced that Lincoln would abolish slavery, began calling for secession. Following two contentious meetings between secessionists and Unionists in Knoxville in late 1860, Unionist leaders organized rallies in counties throughout East Tennessee to counter rising secessionist sentiment.Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War, pp. 149-162.
The efforts of Tennessee's secessionists culminated in a February 9, 1861, statewide referendum in which voters chose whether or not to hold a convention to consider the issue of secession. After a bitter campaign, the hopes of secessionists appeared to be dashed when Tennessee voters rejected holding the convention, 69,675 votes to 57,789. In East Tennessee, roughly 81% of voters rejected the convention, including majorities in every East Tennessee county with the exception of Sullivan and (by a slight majority) Meigs.
While slavery was a divisive issue nationwide, East Tennessee's Unionists opposed secession for different reasons. There had been an abolitionist movement in East Tennessee in the early 19th century, but it had largely dissolved by the 1840s. By 1860, the region's Unionist leaders opposed both secession and abolition. Many members of the East Tennessee Convention were slave owners, and at least one (William C. Kyle of Hawkins County) was actually a slave trader. Reasons for the strong Unionist movement in East Tennessee typically focus on long-standing political disputes with Middle and West Tennessee, economic differences with the other two divisions (including a significantly smaller slave population relative to the rest of the South), and the region's mountainous isolation.
First Knoxville session
The Unionists' victory in February 1861 was short-lived. Following the Battle of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, sentiments in Tennessee began to shift in favor of secession. Harris rejected Lincoln's call for troops to put down the rebellion, and initiated efforts to align Tennessee with the burgeoning Confederate States of America. In early May, the General Assembly passed legislation establishing a military alliance with the Confederacy and issued a "Declaration of Independence" from the United States. A new referendum was slated for June 8 for Tennessee's voters to choose whether or not to adopt the new Declaration and effectively lead Tennessee into the Confederacy.
Tennessee Unionists blasted the state government's actions as unconstitutional and despotic, but nevertheless began a determined campaign for the June 8 vote. In mid-May, several of Knoxville's Unionist leaders gathered at the Gay Street law office of Oliver Perry Temple, and decided to hold a convention at the end of the month to coordinate strategy. One of them, Connally Trigg, wrote a summons which was published in the Knoxville Whig on May 18. In subsequent days, counties throughout the region held smaller conventions to choose delegates and give them instructions. These county conventions were momentous events, often accompanied by impassioned speeches and brass band performances.
On May 30, the East Tennessee Convention's 469 delegates from 28 East Tennessee counties gathered in a grove near Temperance Hall in East Knoxville. The Reverend Thomas William Humes delivered the opening sermon. Congressman T. A. R. Nelson (of Washington County) was chosen as president, James G. Spears (of Bledsoe) was chosen as vice president, and John M. Fleming (of Knox) was named secretary. Richard D. Wheeler (Campbell), James C. Murphy (Sevier), M. R. May (McMinn), John Williams, Jr. (Knox), and William Heiskell (Monroe) were named assistant vice presidents, and A. L. Greene (Roane), S. P. Doss (Bledsoe), and J. Monroe Meek (Jefferson) were named assistant secretaries.
After delivering a one-hour speech, Nelson appointed a 26-man general committee (or "business" committee), consisting of one delegate for each county (two counties, Marion and Hancock, were represented by proxies). The committee was tasked with drawing up a set of resolutions as a response to the actions of the state government. While the committee was meeting privately, former Congressman Thomas D. Arnold, a member of the Greene County delegation, delivered an explosive two-hour speech to the rest of the convention. On the morning of May 31, Senator Andrew Johnson delivered a three-hour speech.
The business committee announced its proposed resolutions on May 31 (interrupting Johnson's speech), and after a short debate, they were adopted. The resolutions essentially praised freedom of assembly, denounced the legislature's violation of state and federal laws, condemned secessionist leaders, and declared the June 8 vote and the state's formation of a military league with the Confederacy unconstitutional. Nelson, as president, was empowered to summon the convention at a future date and select the place where it would convene.
Interim
After the convention adjourned, its leaders embarked on a speaking campaign in hopes of once again thwarting secessionists' efforts in the June 8 referendum. Nelson and Johnson, who had been jointly campaigning in the weeks before the convention, resumed their canvass. Fiery newspaper publisher William G. Brownlow defended the convention's actions in the Knoxville Whig. The pro-secession Knoxville Register, on the other hand, blasted the convention, stating it was driven by "selfish motives," and that its resolutions amounted to treason.
On June 8, secessionists prevailed when voters statewide approved the state's secession ordinance by a margin of 108,418 to 46,996. However, while 86% of voters in Middle and West Tennessee approved of the ordinance, nearly 70% of East Tennessee voters still opposed it. A majority of voters in every East Tennessee county opposed the ordinance with the exception of Sullivan, Meigs, Monroe, Rhea, Sequatchie, and Polk.
A county-by-county breakdown of the vote shows that opposition to secession was strongest in the mountainous northern East Tennessee counties, namely Scott (99% against), Sevier (96%), Carter (94%), Campbell (94%), and Anderson (93%). Rhea County showed the most dramatic shift since the February referendum, going from 88% against secession in February to 64% for secession in June. Smaller shifts had taken place in Knox (89% against in February, but only 72% against in June) and Roane (96% against in February, 77% against in June).
Greeneville session