For the sake of comparison, I'll offer a few notes on Alabama, Tennessee's sister state to the south. Political opinion during this period remained fluid rather than static, varying sharply after events that shocked or alarmed the Southern public. We could chart it like a volatile stock. For instance, John Brown's attack on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va., became the Nine-Eleven event of the antebellum era. Afterwards secession could be seen as a reasonable political alternative, something it had never really been before.

A careful reading of state newspapers from the pre-war period demonstrates strong feelings for the Union throughout the state, but with great concern for the rise of abolitionist sentiment in the Northern states. For instance in August of 1859 the Governor of Alabama, A. B. Moore, easily defeated a secessionist opponent to win reelection. At that time sentiment state-wide appears to have been 50% pro-Union, 20% pro-secession, and 30% undecided.

The terrorist attack by John Brown in October 1859 (with the threat of more to come) had a strong impact on Southern opinion. Many Southerners realized that sectional conflict had become more than mere politics -- some people in the North really intended death and destruction for slaveholders. In Alabama opinion shifted to 40% pro-secession, 30% pro-Union and the rest undecided.

In the event of the election of a President representing a sectional party in 1860, the Alabama legislature passed a resolution to call a convention. The resolution passed a year before secession, just after Harpers Ferry, the question being decided some time in advance. The election of Abraham Lincoln further undercut the Unionists, with Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops to surpress the Southern states demolishing their position. Opinion in other states must have changed in a similar manner.

Nealry all delegates to the Alabama secession convention represented themselves as "straight-out" immediate secessionists, or "co-operationists," men who wanted to wait and see what other slave states would do. Only two or three delegates opposed secession regardless.

One additional note -- most Southerners shared national feelings of patriotism, even after secession. For example, the Governor of Alabama issued militia commissions on watermarked paper containing a U.S. shield and the motto E Pluribus Unum, and militia buttons worn by Alabama volunteers in 1860-61 carried the U.S. shield. Buttons had been purchased by the state after Harpers Ferry, so the choice in design was deliberate. It also fit with uniforms, the exact cut and color of that worn by U.S. soldies. One Alabama company called itself the "Constitution Guards," which captures the spirit of the moment.

The American flag appeared on Alabama newspapers carrying news of Fort Sumter, one prominent Alabama newspaper's masthead reading, "Save the Union" until that time.