The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 4 | Page 8

would unquestionably
call a convention as soon as it was ascertained that a majority of
Lincoln electors were chosen in the then pending presidential election.
"If a single State secedes," he wrote, "she will follow her. If no other
State takes the lead, South Carolina will secede; in my opinion, alone,
if she has any assurance that she will be soon followed by another or
other States; otherwise, it is doubtful." He asked information, and
advised concerted action.
The governors of North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and
Georgia sent replies; but the discouraging tone of their responses
establishes, beyond controversy, that, with the exception of South
Carolina, "the Rebellion was not in any sense a popular revolution, but
was a conspiracy among the prominent local office-holders and
politicians, which the people neither expected nor desired, and which
they were made eventually to justify and uphold by the usual arts and
expedients of conspiracy."
From the dawn of its existence the South had practically controlled the
government; she very naturally wished to perpetuate her control. The
extension of slavery and the creation of additional slave States was a
necessary step in the scheme, and became the well-defined single issue
in the presidential election, though not necessarily the primal cause of
the impending civil war. For the first time in the history of the republic
the ambition of the South met overwhelming defeat. In legal form and
by constitutional majorities Abraham Lincoln was chosen to the

presidency, and this choice meant, finally, that slavery should not be
extended.
An election was held in South Carolina in the month of October, 1860,
under the manipulation of the conspirators. To a Legislature chosen
from the proper material, Governor Gist, on November 5th, sent a
message declaring "our institutions" in danger from the "fixed
majorities" of the North, and recommending the calling of a State
Convention, and the purchase of arms and the material of war. This was
the first official notice and proclamation of insurrection.
The morning of November 7th decided the result of the national
election. From this time onward everything was adroitly managed to
swell the revolutionary furor. The people of South Carolina, and
especially of Charleston, indulged in a continuous holiday, amid
unflagging excitement, and, while singing the Marseillaise, prepared
for war! Everybody appeared to be satisfied,--the conspirators, because
their schemes were progressing, and the people, because, innocently
duped, they hoped for success.
The first half of the month of December had worn away. A new
governor, Francis W. Pickens, ruled the destinies of South Carolina. A
Convention, authorized by the Legislature, met at Columbia, the capital
of the State, and, on the 20th of December, passed unanimously what it
called an ordinance of secession, in the following words:--
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 was immediately made known by huge placards, issued
from the Charleston printing-offices, and by the firing of guns, the

ringing of bells, and other jubilations. The same evening South
Carolina was proclaimed an "independent commonwealth." Said one of
the chief actors: "The secession of South Carolina is not an event of a
day. It is not anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or by the
non-execution of the Fugitive-Slave Law. It is a matter which has been
gathering head for thirty years." This was a distinct affirmation, which
is corroborated by other and abundant testimony, that the revolt was not
only against right, but that it was utterly without cause.
The events which took place in South Carolina were, in substance,
duplicated in her sister States of the South. Mississippi seceded on
January 9, 1861; Florida, on January 10; Alabama, on January 11;
Georgia, on January 18; Louisiana, on January 26; and Texas, on
February 1; but not a single State, except Texas, dared to submit its
ordinance of secession to a direct vote of the people.
One of the most striking features in the early history of the secession is
the apparent delusion in the minds of the leaders that secession could
not result in war. Even after the firing upon Sumter, the delusion
continued to exist. Misled, perhaps, by the opinion of ex-President
Pierce,[1] the South believed that the North would be divided; that it
would not