of the scene. When the president announced the passage of the ordinance prayer was offered in the most fervent and impressive manner to the great Ruler of Nations for the peaand prosperity of the new republic. It was a scene of moral grandeur-the doing of a brave deed by a gallant people, trusting in God.

On the day after the passage of the ordinance I was formally invited to address the convention, but as the purpose of my mission had been accomplished, and having no authority from the convention of Alabama to make any propositions concerning the formation of a new government, and not even knowing what would be the action of our State, I thought it best that I should not address the convention, and therefore declined the invitation. The ordinance of secession was enrolled on parchment, and it was signed on the 15th instant by every delegate except two, who were absent from the convention. The people of Mississippi are no longer divided. They are of one mind, ready to spend their fortunes and their lives to make good that which their delegates have ordained. As the minority of the delegates made no factious opposition, so the minority of the people are not inclined to make a seditious resistance to the sovereignty of the State. Those a patriotism worthy of all honor, determined to conquer or die in defense of the rights and sovereignty of their State. I left Jackson on the 18th instant, after having informed the Governor and the convention of my intention to do so.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,

EDMUND W. PETTUS.

JOINT RESOLUTION concerning the position of Virginia in the event of the dissolution of the Union. Adopted January 21, 1861.

Resolved by the General Assembly of Virginia, That if all efforts to reconcile the unhappy differences existing between the two sections of the country shall prove to be abortive, then, in the opinion of the General Assembly, every consideration of honor and interest demands that Virginia shall unite her destiny with the slave-holding States of the South.

AN ORDINANCE to declare and continue in force in this State sundry laws of the late United States of America in reference to the African slave-trade.

The people of Georgia in convention assembled to hereby declare and ordain, That all the laws passed by the Congress of the late United States of America and in force in this State prior to the 19th day of January, 1861, in reference to the African slave-trade, except the fifth section of the act of the 10th of May, 1800, and also so much of the act of 15th of May, 1820, as declares the offenses therein specified to be piracy, and in lieu of the penalty of death therein specified there shall be substituted imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of years not less than five nor exceeding twenty, in the discretion of the court, be, and the same are hereby, declared to be in full force in this State: Provided, The same shall not be construed to extend to the importation of negro slaves from any one of the slave-holding States of the late United States of America, or from either of the independent republics of South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, or Mississippi: Provided further, The slaves so introduced from the slave-holding States of North America shall not have been imported from beyond seas into such State since the 20th day of December, 1860.