CHAPTER V.

Secession Convention in South Carolina - Proceedings of the Convention - Ordinance of Secession Adopted - Public Excitement - Signing the Ordinance - Anxiety of the Loyal People - Secretary Cobb's Schemes - President's Message: Its Tone and Reception - The Attorney-General's Opinion - Movements of the People and the Clergy - Proceedings in South Carolina - Declaration of Independence Nationality of South Carolina Proclaimed - Events in Charleston Harbor - Secretary Floyd's Treachery - Transfer of Troops to Fort Sumter - The Secessionists Foiled - Floyd Succeeded by Holt.

0n the A of December, 1860, delegates to the State Convention of South Carolina were chosen. They met at Columbia, the capital, on the 17th, and chose David F. Jamison president of their body. When he was about to administer an oath to the delegates a serious difficulty was presented. The Constitution of the State of South Carolina provided that, on such occasions, an oath to support the Constitution of the United States must be taken. That requirement was like a cobweb before the leaders in the movement and the difficulty was swept away by ex-Governor Adams, who said: "We have come here to break down a government, not to support one." The delegates were all of one mind concerning the object of their assemblage so they proceeded without the solemnity of an oath of any kind, conscious that the fundamental law of their State declared them to be an unlawful body, and their acts were not binding upon any one.

President Jamison briefly addressed the Convention on taking the chair, and closed by saying: "I cannot offer you anything better, in inaugurating this movement, than commencement of the words of Danton at the commencement of the French Revolution: 'To dare! and again to dare! and without end to dare!" These brave words were followed by considerable excitement in the Convention, for intelligence came that the small pox was raging as an epidemic in Columbia. It was immediately proposed to adjourn to Charleston. One of the delegates (W. P. Miles) them not to flee. "We shall be sneered at," he said; and exclaimed, "Is this the chivalry of South Carolina?" But chivalry was not proof against fear of the loathsome disease, and by first train the next morning, the delegates all fled to Charleston.

The Convention proceeded to business by appointing several committees to consider various subjects, such as the relations of South Carolina to the United States in regard to public property within the limits of that State, and commercial relations also their connection with the people of other slave holding States. A committee was also chosen, with John A. Inglis as chairman, to report the form of an ordinance of secession. After debating some questions, and proposing a provisional government for the States that might follow the example of South Carolina in seceding to send commissioners to Washington city to negotiate with the National Government for the cession of its property within the State of South Carolina, and to elect delegates to meet others from slave labor States for the purpose of forming a Southern Con

PERIODICALS: A HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR: SECTION THREE