reby. His
representatives in House and Senate, the men he sent to take part as
electors in the choosing of a President, had rather the air of
ambassadors than of legislators. They were in Congress to fight the
battles of their State, and avowed quite frankly that if it should ever
appear that "the Treaty called the Constitution of the United States"
(as South Carolina afterwards designated it in her Declaration of
Independence) were working to its disadvantage, they would denounce it
with as little scruple or heart-burning as the Washington Government
might denounce a commercial treaty with England or Spain.

South Carolina had been talking freely of secession for thirty years. As
I have said, she regarded the Union simply as a diplomatic arrangement
to be maintained while it was advantageous, and again and again doubts
had been expressed as to whether in fact it was advantageous. The fiscal
question which had been the ostensible cause of the Nullification
movement in the 'thirties was still considered a matter of grievance. As
an independent nation, it was pointed out, South Carolina would be free
to meet England on the basis of reciprocal Free Trade, to market her
cotton in Lancashire to the best advantage, and to receive in return a
cheap and plentiful supply of British manufactures. At any moment since
1832 a good opportunity might have led her to attempt to break away. The
election of Lincoln was to her not so much a grievance as a signal--and
not altogether an unwelcome one. No time was lost in discussion, for the
State was unanimous. The legislature had been in session choosing
Presidential electors--for in South Carolina these were chosen by the
legislature and not by the people. When the results of the voting in
Pennsylvania and Indiana made it probable that the Republicans would
have a majority, the Governor intimated that it should continue to sit
in order to consider the probable necessity of taking action to save
the State. The news of Lincoln's election reached Charleston on the 7th
of November. On the 10th of November the legislature unanimously voted
for the holding of a specific Convention to consider the relations of
South Carolina with the United States. The Convention met early in
December, and before the month was out South Carolina had in her own
view taken her place in the world as an independent nation. The Stars
and Stripes was hauled down, and the new "Palmetto Flag"--a palm-tree
and a single s