Today in History:

21 Series IV Volume I- Serial 127 - Correspondence, Orders, Reports and Returns of the Confederate Authorities, December 20, 1860 – June 30, 1862

Page 21 CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES.

secession, and then adjourned to Charleston, to meet the next day at 4 p. m. I regret that I cannot furnish Your Excellency with a copy of this resolution; but on application to the clerk of the convention in Charleston for a copy I was informed by him that owing to the haste in which the convention had removed from Columbia some of the papers were mislaid, and this among them, and none of the proceedings of the first day had been or could be at the time printed. I left Columbia on the 18th at 2 p. m. and reached Charleston about 10 p. m. No measures of importance were adopted by the convention until the 20th of December, when the ordinance of secession was reported by the committee and adopted unanimously, as follows:

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 of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, 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acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the "United States of America," is hereby dissolved.

And on its passage the following resolution was adopted:

Resolved, That the ordinance be engrossed, under the direction of the attorney-general and the solicitors, upon parchment, and signed by the p resident and members of the convention at the Institute Hall, in the alphabetical order of election districts, and be deposited in the archives of the State.

At 7 p. m. on the same day the ordinance, engrossed on parchment, with the great seal of the State attached, was signed by the president and every member of the convention. Many questions were submitted to the convention, on which no definite action has been taken that I am aware of. I have authentic information that the convention passed the following ordinances and resolutions:

First, one to alert the constitution of the State of South Carolina in respect to the oath of office; second, one, the appointment of commissioners to Washington; third, one to make provisional arrangements for the continuance of commercial facilities in South Carolina; fourth, one vesting in the General Assembly of the State the powers lately vested in the Congress of the United States; fifth, one vesting in such courts as the General Assembly should direct the judicial powers heretofore delegated to the Government of the United States; sixth, one to define and punish treason against the State; seventh, one in relation to citizenship in the State. Copies of all which are hereto attached for the information of Your Excellency. *

There were other important ordinances submitted to the convention, but I had no means of ascertaining whether they were adopted in the precise form in which they were offered, but I am satisfied they were passed either in that form or with some modification. These I attach to the reports of committees and addresses, herewith submitted. * I was in the city of Charleston when, on the night of the 26th of December, Fort Moultrie was evacuated and Fort Sumter occupied by the Federal troops under the command of Major Anderson. The greatest indignation was aroused by this violation of the understanding between the authorities of the State and the Government forts. From the most reliable sources I was informed that the State should make no attack or hostile demonstration against the fortresses

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*Not found.

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