ade attempted to teach these men the drill at the heavy guns, they
drew back in great alarm, and it was soon seen that no dependence could
be placed upon them. So Castle Pinckney was left to its fate.

As the General Government seemed quietly to have deserted us, we watched
the public sentiment at the North with much interest. There was but
little to encourage us there. The Northern cities, however, were
beginning to appreciate the gravity of the crisis. At the call of the
Mayor of Philadelphia, a great public meeting was held in Independence
Square. For one, I was thoroughly dispirited and disgusted at the
resolutions that were passed. They were evidently prompted by the
almighty dollar, and the fear of losing the Southern trade. They urged
that the North should be more than ever subservient to the South, more
active in catching fugitive slaves, and more careful not to speak
against the institution of slavery. As a pendant to these resolutions,
an official attempt was made, a few days afterward, to prevent the
eloquent Republican orator, George W. Curtis, from advocating the
Northern side of the question.

CHAPTER IV.

THE REMOVAL TO FORT SUMTER.

Passage of the Secession Ordinance.--Governor Pickens's
Proclamation.--Judge Petigru's Visit to Fort Moultrie.--Floyd's
Treachery.--Yancey's Lectures in the North.--The Removal to Fort
Sumter.

On the 17th a bill was passed to arm the militia of North Carolina.

On the same day the Charleston Convention met, and chose General D.F.
Jamison as their president, and on the 20th of the month the secession
ordinance was duly passed, and South Carolina voted out of the Union
amidst screams of enthusiasm. Immediately afterward there was great
competition for the possession of the immortal pen with which the
instrument was signed. At the close of the war, I heard it was for sale
at a very low figure.

The new Governor, Francis W. Pickens, signed the ordinance very gladly,
and issued his proclamation on the 24th declaring South Carolina to be a
free and independent nation. He had served as a member of Congress from
1835 to 1843, and as Minister to Russia in 1858, but he was not
considered a man of decided ability. He was very impetuous in his
disposition, and, according to a statement made by him in one of his
Congressional speeches, which attracted much attention at the time, he
was "born insensible to fear."

Soon after the State seceded, that st