February 12, 1861; The Charleston Mercury
MONTGOMERY, February 9, 1861.
Last night the Congress agreed on the Constitution of a Provisional Government, and today they are to sign it at twelve o’clock. There must have been some tough debating, from their procrastinated sittings, but I understand the Constitution is announced as unanimously adopted. Its temporary character will, I suppose, shield it from severe criticism. We will not know what it is until it is signed today by the Delegates. Today the election of the President and Vice President of the confederacy takes place. Mr. DAVIS of Mississippi, and Mr. COBB, of Georgia, will probably be the only persons voted for. Mr. DAVIS will most probably, I learn, be elected. Who will be Vice President, I have not learned.
As Col. HAYNE is now returned to Charleston, without an order for the surrender of Fort Sumter, public attention here is on the tip toe to hear what your Executive will do. Will he, like Governor BROWN, of Georgia, vindicate the rights of the State and attack Fort Sumter? The people here are listening to hear the guns.
I think from what I can learn here, that this Congress considers itself, with the South, to have passed the Rubicon. No reconstruction seems to be the decided policy. But there is a strong leaning to the Frontier States. The sessions being secret, we outsiders can know nothing of the differences which agitate the Convention, but I think I see no little dissatisfaction on some faces. Yet they all seem resolute and determined.