On February 4, 1861, delegates from six Southern States which had seceded from the Union met in Alabama’s State Capitol; on February 8, the 37 delegates adopted a “Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America.” A day later, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected President of the Confederation; he was inaugurated on the West Portico on February 18, the Confederate flag flying for the first time over this building. The Confederate Congress met in Montgomery until May 22, 1861, when the capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia.