Being just plain curious about the secession referendum in other states, I started looking-up the numbers a short time ago, and what I found surprised me. Texas, Tennessee, and Virginia appear to be the only states to actually allow the public to voice their opinion on the idea of secession.
In Texas, the vote was held on February 23, 1861 and resulted in 46,153 in favor and 14,747 (24%) against; but there is evidence that this vote was compromised. In fact, I just ran across a resource recently that focuses on the way the referendum was compromised, but I just can’t seem to locate it right now.
Granted, I’ve talked about Virginia’s referendum before, but for the sake of comparison, I’m throwing-in the numbers here once again. In Virginia, the vote was held on May 23, 1861 and resulted in 132,201 in favor and 37,451 (22%) against. Believe me, that 22% you see is not representative of the soon-to-be counties of West Virginia. In addition to opposition in the counties of the Old Dominion that are still counties in the Old Dominion, I’ve found a good deal that shows various forms of coercion in my dealings with Virginia’s Southern Claims Commission applications, and I’ve just scratched the surface so far. Despite the way the results read on paper (in the Shenandoah Valley, for example), even in Rockbridge County, where only the “village idiot” voted against secession (so sayeth a character in the movie Gods & Generals), there were more opposed to secession than meets the eye. I’ve even heard about how the town of Lexington was faced with some issues when it came to Unionists.
In Tennessee, the vote was held on June 8, 1861 and resulted in 104,913 in favor and 47,238 (31%) against. I can’t say too much on this one as I’m not so familiar with the goings-on in Tennessee. I probably need to spend some time looking through Tennessee SCC applications. Any contributions to the discussion on Tennessee’s referendum would be most welcome.
So, why did the other Southern states not conduct a referendum vote? I’ve heard, but haven’t found evidence yet, that Georgia may have had one, but tossed the results as they did not reflect favorably on the act of secession. I’m not so sure that is correct, but will keep looking into it.
Yes, this probably belongs over in the Southern Unionists Chronicles, and I’m sure I’ll put it over there soon enough, but when it comes to Civil War “memory,” it’s significant here as well.
Cenantua's Blog 
Bobby Lee
May 16, 2009
The process of secession is very interesting to me. People seem to think it was a popular process but, as you’ve noted, in most cases the people had little to do with it. My own interest is in West Virginia statehood, and I think that in this particular situation West Virginia’s vote is widely misunderstood among southerners, who seem to know little about their own history, and among historians who seem content to parrot what was written before them.
I find it interesting that in Louisiana 46% voted for anti-secession candidates to their convention, but they were betrayed by their representatives. The convention voted 113 to 17 for secession.
In Alabama the vote was 39 to 61 against secession, which I think remarkable. Almost 40% against in Alabama. In the 50 counties that became West Virginia, the vote was roughly 34,000 to 19,000 against secession. In the light of the fact that a new state was created from these counties by a Wheeling Unionist government, historians have viewed this vote as a validation of statehood, which in fact it was not. Certainly there was some voter intimidation in western Virginia, but I would guess that western Virginia had the most honest and free expression on the issue of any area in the south. The Lt. Gov. of the Restored Government of Virginia, Daniel Polsley, stated as much during the 2nd Wheeling Convention.
While I find the vote on secession in western Virginia to be as good a reflection of the true sentiment as one can expect in a 19th Century referendum, the statehood vote of Oct. 24, 1861 is a different matter entirely. Historians make all sorts of excuses (or ignore it altogether) as to why only 18,000 people voted for statehood when there were 56,000 voters available in the 48 counties that were to be polled. They ignore the most obvious reason, that the people of western Virginia did not wish to separate from Virginia. There was no dislocation of populace in the area, no large movements between competing armies to disrupt communities. The Ohio Militia entered west Virginia with only minor opposition. And despite what many think, West Virginians did not rush into Federal service. According to the Wheeling and Wellsburg newspapers in Aug. 1861 there were not 4 complete regiments of Virginia Union troops. An analysis of these early units by the George Tyler Moore Center in Shepherdstown has shown that they are about 60% Pennsylvania & Ohio. So there was no large absence of men in Union service to account for the missing voters on the Statehood referendum. I think the single, most enduring myth of the Civil War is the creation of West Virginia.
cenantua
May 18, 2009
West Virginia is a fascinating study in terms of the Civil War. The referendum and the vote against breaking with Virginia are indeed worthy topics for study. You mention that the vote there was a “true reflection,” however, I think you have to consider the differences between areas within what became WV. The Kanawha Valley, for example, had a larger number of slaves than most WV counties. So, was there more coercion there in the vote than other areas? This is something that cannot be neglected in considering matters in WV. Granted, there are also differences in the fringe counties (lying along the edge of the Shenandoah Valley) and other counties deeper in WV. It’s a very complex picture to consider.
Robert
Bobby Lee
May 20, 2009
Hi, Robert. The only mention I have ever come across of voter coercion in West Virginia was in D. Detzer’s “Dissonance”, when he mentions troop movement and cannon in the eastern panhandle. But I don’t know that that was actually intended to affect the vote. Jefferson County was going for secession anyway. Detzer shows the same blindspot that many historians do about the May 23 vote in WV. He goes on to say that the western counties were solid in their Unionism. Well, no, they weren’t. Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson gave the better part of three regiments to Richmond, though Morgan only gave about a company & a half.
Kanawha County is a curiosity in both the May 23 and Oct. 24 votes. In the May 23 vote they voted heavily against secession, though they were surrounded on all sides, except the west, by secession counties. In the Oct. 24 Statehood vote they voted heavily in favor, though this time they were totally surrounded by counties with little or no vote in favor. Cabell & Wayne to the west had to have Union troops called in to have polls open. And here again we see Detzer is wrong. Cabell & Wayne voted against secession about 4 to 1, yet two recent studies of soldiers from those counties give about half to Richmond. The large Kanawha vote for Statehood is very suspicious, John A. Williams called it “absurdly large”, and I suspect that Gen. Cox’s Ohio troops had a hand in it. They are in fact responsible for almost all the vote in Hampshire County, as this was discussed in the Constitutional Convention records in late 1861. One of the more interesting quotes I found in the Constitutional Conventions records is by Chapman J. Stuart on Dec. 10, 1861- “Now, Mr. President, to show you, and it needs but to look at the figures to satisfy the mind of every member, that even a majority of the people within the district composed of the thirty-nine counties have never come to the polls and expressed their sentiments in favor of a new State. In a voting population of some 40,000 or 50,000 we see a poll of only 17,627 and even some of them were in the [Union] army.” The voting pool was actually just short of 52,000.
After the May 23 vote, there was no honest vote in West Virginia at all. Because of the voice vote it was impossible to hide your colors. Secessionists threatened Unionists, and Unionists did the same to secessionists. In Wheeling after the May 23 vote someone printed up a broadside with names of people who had voted for the Ordinance and called then traitors.
The Richard Curry book “A House Divided” is about the best one to discuss the situation, though he tends to give the edge to Unionists, and he said he did this deliberately. I think a 50/50 split is a more accurate tally, as some counties, like Cabell and Wayne, which he considered solidly Union, have been shown not to be. It’s too bad he never did a second edition.
tom humphrey
February 12, 2011
Tennessee actually had two referendums. The first was in February, 1861, and secession was rejected 68,282 – 55,499 (according to best info i can find so far in internet search that led me to your blog). The turnabout came after Lincoln issued his call for troops, resulting in the June, 1861 referendum. The Legislature had voted to secede on May 6, subject to voter approval in the referendum.
Robert Moore
February 14, 2011
“Tennessee actually had two referendums.”
Yes, the last sentence in my blog post is a hint in that direction… but we’re not quite at the 150th of that event yet.
jeff
June 13, 2013
Has anyone had any luck in finding the vote share by county in the first Tennessee referendum in February, 1861?
Robert Moore
June 13, 2013
Not sure. If so, it would be great to see it posted as a comment.
Bobby Lee
June 13, 2013
Your wish is my command!
Robert Moore
June 14, 2013
Thanks. These are great maps. It would also be interesting to see the actual breakdown of the referendum votes within each county. Regretfully, these maps can’t tell us how counties were divided within themselves.
Bobby Lee
June 14, 2013
This is my Google search, the website lower on the page from Enduringvisions has the county by county vote, I opened it both from the Cached option and by Word, it seems to be safe.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CFQQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fenduringvisions.wikispaces.com%2Ffile%2Fview%2FVote%2Bon%2BSecession%2Bin%2BEast%2C%2BMiddle%2C%2Band%2BWest%2BTennessee.doc&ei=qY67UZmhEeK_0gG0g4GwCg&usg=AFQjCNHlTEYlIU60BRQUkN5PEdxjFKOsoA&sig2=jEjI-xePvEtyTj-cgOdBjA
Bob Arrington
June 15, 2013
Here is a webpage with the county vote, though they didn’t give a source. I opened it in the Cache mode.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:SpxQmlOK98sJ:enduringvisions.wikispaces.com/file/view/Vote%2Bon%2BSecession%2Bin%2BEast,%2BMiddle,%2Band%2BWest%2BTennessee.doc+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us