In Mississippi, a preliminary convention, instigated by Calhoun,
recommended the holding of a Southern convention at Nashville in
June, 1850, to "adopt some mode of resistance". The "Resolutions"
declared the Wilmot Proviso "such a breach of the federal compact
as . . . will make it the duty . . . of the slave-holding states
to treat the non-slave-holding states as enemies". The "Address"
recommended "all the assailed states to provide in the last
resort for their separate welfare by the formation of a compact
and a Union". "The object of this [Nashville Convention] is to
familiarize the public mind with the idea of dissolution",
rightly judged the Richmond Whig and the Lynchburg Virginian.

Radical resistance men controlled the legislature and "cordially
approved" the disunion resolution and address, chose delegates to
the Nashville Convention, appropriated $20,000 for their expenses
and $200,000 for "necessary measures for protecting the state . .
. in the event of the passage of the Wilmot Proviso", etc.[13]
These actions of Mississippi's legislature one day before
Webster's 7th of March speech mark approximately the peak of the
secession movement.

[13] Mar. 6, 1850. Laws (Miss.), pp. 521-526.


Governor Quitman, in response to public demand, called the
legislature and proposed "to recommend the calling of a regular
convention . . . with full power to annul the federal compact".
"Having no hope of an effectual remedy . . . but in separation
from the Northern States, my views of state action will look to