The United States land officers were authorized to continue
in their offices and perform their duties according to the
laws of the United States. ¹ All citizens of the United
States domiciled in Mississippi were declared to be citizens
of the state, and the federal naturalization laws were re-
enacted and applied to the state. At a second session of the
convention, held in May, the Confederate Constitution was
ratified by a vote of 78 to 7, after the rejection of several
resolutions which had in view the taking of the sense of the
people on the question. A number of ordinances was passed,
the chief purpose of which was to place the state on a war
footing.

Although the electorate was not directly consulted in the
proceedings by which relations with the United States were
broken off and a great war inaugurated, the work of the con-
vention seems to have been thoroughly acceptable, if a judg-
ment may be formed from the hearty response to the call of
the governor for troops and from other popular manifestations
of approval. On the night after the passage of the ordinance,
the state Capital was brilliantly illuminated, and the "Bonnie
Blue Flag" was sung for the first time in a local theatre by
its author, who had witnessed the drama of secession. Reuben
Davis relates that upon his return from Washington he found
the rejoicing so great that he was rarely out of the sound of
cannon from the time he entered the state until he reached
his home at Aberdeen. The women of the state were almost
unanimous for resistance, and the encouragement which they
gave to the soldiers in the field and their sacrifices for the cause
of the Confederacy were the subject of frequent acknowledg-
ment by the legislature during the dark days of the war.

The responses to the governor's call were so ready, that, as
early as the middle of May, he was compelled to announce
that a sufficient number of troops to fill any probable requisi-
tion by the Confederate government had been tendered, and
he was, therefore, under the "painful necessity" of inform-
ing those who were anxious to enlist, that no more companies
would be received for the present. ² "The call to arms," he
said, "has been responded to in a manner unknown to modern
times, and the call for means to support the volunteers is
being answered in a way to gratify the heart of every
patriot." The several railroads within the state tendered
the free use of their cars for transporting troops and supplies,
and prominent citizens in various portions of the state drew

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