Along those lines, it's important to remember that the AVC came about in reponse to John Brown's attack on Harpers Ferry. While Alabama legislators debated particulars on the AVC law, a U.S. Senate investigation determined that Brown had not simply attempted to free slaves in Virginia, but to create a new nation in which slavery would be outlawed. One of the most serious charges against Brown was that of treason. After his execution, Brown's effort had been applauded by prominent abolitionists throughout the North.

The AVC became Alabama's law-and-order response to these abolitionists who wanted to split the country over slavery. Aside from the name "Andrew Jackson Guards", another AVC company named itself the "Consitutional Guards". AVC buttons always displayed the U.S. shield and the eagle. For that matter, AVC commissions were written on paper from Governor Moore's office watermarked with a similar emblem and the motto, E Pluribus Unum. You can read editorial comment from the Tallapoosa Times and readily understand that secession was not a favored response to political problems in 1860, at least not in that newspaper's Dadeville office.

Conversion of political sentiment in Alabama during the winter of 1860-61 from Unionism to secession stands as one of the most amazing transformations in the history of any country having a republican form of government. The metamorphasis from "Andrew Jackson Guards" to "Tallapoosa Rifles" may be evidence of it.