As Southern states seceded from the Union in the months leading up to the Civil War, Missouri struggled with the decision of whether to rebel and join the new Confederacy. On February 18, voters elected an overwhelmingly pro-Union group of representatives to the convention. Despite strong Unionist sentiment, this set of resolutions from February or March of 1861 reveal that Missouri was a true border state: one that wanted to preserve slavery and yet ultimately rejected calls to abandon the Union. Missouri became the only state to call up a convention to consider secession without actually seceding.