Historical Documents: Speeches and Declarations

• Ordinances of Secession of the 13 Confederate States of America
  When each of the 13 Confederate States left the Union, its state government drafted an official declaration of secession.

• The Emancipation Proclamation
  The proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, declared all slaves in states that were in rebellion against the Union to be free. It did not free slaves in Kentucky or the other slave-holding states that had stayed in the Union.

• Henry Clay's speech before the U.S. Senate, January 29, 1850
  Kentucky's statesman senator speaks against secession.

• Jefferson Davis' Inaugural Address
  Davis justifies Southern secession on taking office as president of the Confederate States of America.

• Confederate States Official Flag Regulations
  flags of the Confederate states

• Official U.S. Flag: 35-Star
  Union Flag during the Civil War