SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES FROM THE UNION
Charleston, South Carolina (JFK+50) On December 20, 1860, the South Carolina Secession Convention, meeting here in Charleston, issued an "Ordinance of Secession*" dissolving "the union between the state of South Carolina and other states united with her under the compact entitled 'The Constitution of the United States'."
The ordinance was presented at 1 p.m. at Institute Hall** and the vote was done in 15 minutes. An announcement of the results of the vote was met with "loud shouts of joy."
According to the authors of The American Pageant...
"Southern leaders regarded secession as a golden opportunity to cast aside...generations of 'vassalage' to the North."
*The Ordinance of Secession was signed by 170 men who were wealthy planters, lawyers, doctors & businessmen. The document was closely guarded during the Civil War & is today located in the SC Department of Archives & History
**Institute Hall, a.k.a. 'Secession Hall', was located on Meeting Street in Charleston, S.C. The building was destroyed in a fire on Dec 11 1861.
SOURCES
Charleston Mercury, December 21, 1860
The American Pageant, by David Kennedy, Lizabeth Cohen and Thomas A. Bailey, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 2006.
"The Ordinance of Secession, 1860/History of South Carolina Slide Collection," www.knowitall.org/
