Reflecting Southern sentiment in the southern portion of the territory, a convention was held at Mesilla on March 16, 1861 that adopted an ordinance of secession and called on the citizens of the western portion of the territory (now southern Arizona) to "join us in this movement". Subsequently, a second convention was held in Tucson on March 28, chaired by Mark Aldrich, who had been Tucson's first mayor. The Tucson convention ratified the Mesilla convention, and provisional officers were elected for the newly established Arizona Territory with Dr. Lewis S. Owings as its governor and Granville Henderson Oury as its first delegate to the Confederate States Congress, who immediately began petitioning for admission.