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South Carolina refused to comply with the federal laws, and rebelled against the power of the general government, General Jackson, by prompt measures, quelled the rebellion, and restored that peace which, until that time and subsequently, reigned through the country.

The Primary Cause.

As every thing must have its origin in something, so with this movement of secession. This originated from an expressed sentiment among the people of the South that, if a Republican President was elected, they would secede from the Union. In no other place was this feeling more openly expressed than in South Carolina. The Southern press reiterated the threats made by their public men, and sedulously inflamed the minds of the entire people, until at last, while all were looking towards South Carolina, each of the Southern States were, to a greater or less degree, preparing to follow her when she should withdraw from the Union. Thus, as the months rolled on, and the time approached when the people of the whole confederacy would be called upon to select a ruler for the next four years, the barrier seemed raising slowly but surely, and it needed but the declaration of the people on the sixth of November, to throw this demarcating wall to such a towering height as to completely darken the whole horizon, mental and social. Then commenced the strife of words so soon to reach that of war.

The Secession of South Carolina.

SOUTH CAROLINA, the pioneer of the seceding States, is about 200 miles in length and 160 in breadth, containing 30,213 square miles, or 19,336,320 acres, bounded N. by N. Carolina; S. E., by the Atlantic Ocean; S. W., by Georgia, from which it is separated by the Savannah river. The population in 1860, was 715,371, 407,185 of whom were slaves. The State is divided into 29 districts, as follows: Abbeville, Anderson, Barnwell, Beaufort, Charleston, Chester, Chesterfield, Colleton, Darlington, Edgefield, Fairfield, Georgetown, Greenville, Horry, Kershaw, Lancaster, Laurens, Lexington, Marion, Marlborough, Newberry, Orangeburg, Pickens, Richland, Spartanburg, Sumter, Union, Williamsburg, York. Columbia is the seat of government.

The country on the sea-coast is level for 100 miles towards the interior, after which is a range of sand hills, and beyond these a diversity of hill and dale which is very fertile. The climate is healthy in the interior, and sickly on the sea-coast in summer and autumn. The principal rivers are the Pedee, Santee, Cooper, Ashley, Edisto, and Savannah. The staple productions are cotton, rice, Indian corn, potatoes, wheat, peas, rye, oats, tobacco, indigo, lumber, oils, silks, tar, pitch, and turpentine. Charleston is the leading commercial port of the State.

The first constitution of South Carolina was formed in 1775, the first formed in the Union. The present constitution was ratified June 3, 1790. In 1670 the first permanent settlement was made in South Carolina by a

THE SECESSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

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small body of English emigrants at Port Royal Island. In 1679 they removed to Charleston, then styled Oyster Point. In 1706 the French and Spaniards made an attack on Charleston, and were defeated. In 1715 the Yemasee Indians were defeated by Governor Craven. In 1720 the government of the Crown was established. In 1775 the first military force was raised for the defence of the colony against the Crown, and the importation of British goods was prohibited. In 1776 the British attacked . Fort Moultrie and were defeated. In 1780 Charleston was besieged by Sir Henry Clinton, and taken at the end of six weeks. In 1782 the British evacuated Charleston. In 1794 cotton was first exported. In 1822 an insurrection among the negroes at Charleston was defeated. In 1833 President Jackson and Gov. Haynes issued counter proclamations on the subject of nullification, originating in the tariff. The State in convention adopted the constitution of the United States, May 23, 1788-Yeas, 149; Nays, 73. December 20, 1860, the State, in convention, threw off her allegiance to the Union, and was proclaimed a free and independent sovereignty.

Following the general election of the sixth of November, South Carolina, as every one south, and very many north, expected she would, moved. Steps were taken to perfect the act of secession, and for this purpose the people were called upon to select delegates to a convention, which should seriously consider the step about to be taken, and for which there seemed such imperative necessity. The election for these delegates took place on the 6th of December. The delegates to the convention assembled on the 17th of December at Columbia, but, owing to the prevalence of small-pox in that city, removed to Charleston.

The legislature of the State convened at Charleston on the 17th, when Governor Pickens delivered his inaugural address, which concluded as follows:

We now have no alternative left but to interpose our sovereign power as an independent State, to protect the rights and ancient privileges of the people of South Carolina.

This State was one of the original parties to the federal compact of the Union. We agreed to it as a State under peculiar circumstances, when we were surrounded with great external pressure, for purposes of national protection, and for the general welfare of all the States, equally and alike; and when it ceases to do this, it is no longer a perpetual Union. It would be an absurdity to suppose it was a perpetual Union for our ruin. The constitution is a compact between co-States, and not with the Federal Government.

I think I am not assuming too much, when I say that her interests will lead her to open her ports to the tonnage and trade of all nations, reserving to herself the right to discriminate only against those who may be our public enemies.

She has fine harbors, accessible to foreign commerce, and she is in the centre of those extensive agricultural productions that enter so largely into the foreign trade and commerce of the world, and form the basis of those comforts, in food and clothing, so essential to the artisan and mechanic laborers in the higher latitudes, and which are also so essential to the prosperity and success of manufacturing capital in the North and in Europe. I therefore may safely say it is for the benefit of all who may

be interested in commerce, in manufactures, in the comforts of artisan and mechanic laborers everywhere, to make such speedy and peaceful arrangements with us as may advance the interests and happiness of all concerned.

There is one thing certain, and I think it due to the country to say in advance, that South Carolina is resolved to assert her separate independence, and as she acceded separately to the compact of Union, so she will most assuredly secede, separately and alone, be the consequences what they may; and I think it right to say, with no unkind feeling whatever, that on this point there can be no compromise, let it be offered from where it may. The issues are too grave and too momentous, to admit of any counsel that looks to any thing but direct and straightforward independence. In the present emergency, the most decided measures are the safest and wisest. To our sister States who are identified with us in interest and feeling, we will cordially and kindly look for co-operation and for a future Union; but it must be after we have asserted and resumed our original and inalienable rights and powers of sovereignty and independence.

We can then form a government with them, having a common interest with people of homogeneous feelings, united together by all the ties that can bind States in one common destiny. From the position we may occupy towards the Northern States, as well as from our own internal structure of society, the government may, from necessity, become strongly military in its organization. When we look back upon the inheritance, the common glories and triumphant power of this common confederacy, no language can express the feelings of the human heart, as we turn from the contemplation, and sternly look to the great future that opens before us. It is our sincere desire to separate from the States of the North in peace, and leave them to develop their own civilization, according to their own sense of duty and of interest. But if, under the guidance of ambition and fanaticism, they decide otherwise, then be it so. We are prepared for any event, and, in humble reliance upon that Providence who presides over the destiny of men and of nations, we will endeavor to do our duty faithfully, bravely, and honestly..

Immediately following this, decisive measures were taken, and after meeting from day to day, on the 20th December the convention passed the following ordinance of secession:

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AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled the Constitution of the United States of America.

We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by us, in convention, on the 23d day of May, in the year of our Lord 1788, whereby the constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said constitution, are hereby repealed, and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved.

The ordinance received the unanimous vote of the convention--169and was ordered to be engrossed on parchment, and to be publicly signed on the following Monday. The news of this act on the part of South Carolina was received with conflicting emotions, according to the locality in which it fell. At the South it was greeted with the most rapturous

DECLARATION OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 7

expressions of satisfaction and explosions of powder; at the North and West with feelings of regret and sorrow. Many of the people at the North gave little thought that South Carolina would remain true to her intention, and felt that it would but require conciliatory steps on the part of the North to induce her to resume her relations in a short time. Still all felt the necessity for some action on the part of the Executive, and eyes were turned Washington-ward for advice and information.

The message of the President, which was delivered to Congress on the 4th of December, had already been referred to appropriate committees, and on the 6th, a committee of thirty-three was appointed by the House of Representatives to take measures for the perpetuity of the Union.

Inasmuch as the events which crowd into this period, the closing month of the last year, came thick and fast; one after another alarming note being sounded in quick succession, it may be well to glance at the immediate effects of the secession of South Carolina.

After the signing of the secession ordinance at Charleston, which was accomplished on the 29th of December, the convention took measures for the government of the republic which they had raised, and issued the following declaration of the causes which justified the secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union, as reported by the committee to prepare an address to the people of the Southern States:

Declaration of the Independence of South Carolina.

"The State of South Carolina having determined to resume a separate and equal rank among nations, deems it due to herself and the remaining United States of America, and the nations of the world, that she should declare the causes which led to the act. In 1765, that portion of the British empire, embracing Great Britain, undertook to make laws for the government of the American colonies. A struggle for the right of selfgovernment ensued, which resulted on the 4th of July, 1776, in a declaration by the colonies, that they are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, and that as free and independent States they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do such things as independent States have the right to do. They further solemnly declared, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the established right of the people to alter and abolish it, and institute a new government. Deeming that the government of Great Britain had become destructive of these ends, they declared the colonies free and absolved from allegiance to the British crown, and the political connection between them and Great Britain was totally dissolved.

The committee say the right of a State to govern itself, and the right of the people to abolish a government when it becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted, were expressed when the colonies separated from the mother country, and became free and independent States. The parties amending the convention of the 17th of September, 1787, were the several sovereign States.

On the 23d of May, 1788, South Carolina, by a convention of her people, assented to the amended constitution of the United States. The failure of one of the contracting parties to maintain the constitutional obligations released the other. Fifteen of the northern States have deliberately refused for years to fulfil their constitutional obligations. We would refer

to those States for a proof of this. When the fourth article of the constitution was adopted, the greater number of the contracting parties held slaves. The hostility of the northern States to the institution of slavery has led them to disregard their constitutional obligations. The laws of the general government have ceased to effect the objects of the constitution. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, have enacted laws either nullifying the constitution, or rendering useless all attempts to execute the act of Congress. In many of these States fugitives "held to service and to labor," have been claimed, but in none of them has the State government complied with the stipulation on this subject made in the constitution.

In the formation of the federal government each State was recognized as an equal; the right and property in slaves was recognized, by giving all free persons distinct political rights; by giving them the right to represent, and burdening them with direct taxes for three-fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the importation of slaves for twenty years, and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives from labor. The ends for which this government was instituted have been defeated, and the government itself made destructive by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions. They denied the rights of property established in fifteen States and recognized by the constitution. They have denounced sinful the institution of slavery; have permitted an open establishment of societies whose avowal and object are, to disturb the peace and prosperity of the citizens of other States; they have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes, and those who remain have been incited by emissaries, by books and pictures, to servile insurrection.

Twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until they have secured the power of the common government. Observing the forms of the constitution, a sectional party has found within that article, establishing an executive department, means of subverting the constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all States north of that line have united in the elevation of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be intrusted with the administration of the common government, because it is declared that a government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free, and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction. This sectional combination for the subversion of the constitution has been aided in the States by elevating to citizenship persons who, by the supreme law of the land, are incapable of becoming citizens, and their votes have been used to inaugurate the new policy hostile to the South, and destructive to its peace and safety.

On the 4th of March next, this party will take possession of the government. It has been announced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory; that the judicial tribunals will be made sectional; that war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States. The guarantees of the constitution will then no longer exist-equal rights of the States will be lost--the slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government or self-protection, and the federal government will have become their enemy. Sectional interests and animosity will deepen the irritation, and all hope of remedy is rendered vain by the fact that the public opinion of the North has invested the political error with the sanction of a more erroneous religious belief.

We, therefore, the people of South Carolina, by our delegates in convention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, have solemnly declared the union heretofore

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