ential
election.

The alleged grounds of justification for this early meeting were:

"The strong possibility of the election to the Presidency of a
sectional candidate by a party committed to the support of measures
which, if carried out, will inevitably destroy _our equality in
the Union_," etc.

This was the avowed reason, finally, for secession, though the true
reason was the absolute restriction of slavery and the overthrow
of the slave power in the Republic. The election of a Republican
President was, of course, a disappointment to Southern statesmen,
long used to absolute sway in Congress and in the administration
of the government. The charge that Lincoln was a sectional President
was true only to the extent that freedom was sectional. Slavery
only was then, by secessionists, regarded as national.

The first important step of the South Carolina Legislature was to
appropriate $100,000 to be expended by the Governor in purchasing
small-arms and a battery of rifled cannon. Without opposition a
convention was called to take "into consideration the dangers
incident to the position of the State in the Federal Union." Her
two United States Senators and other of her Federal officers forthwith
resigned. A grand mass meeting was held, November 17th, at
Charleston, generally participated in by the ladies, merchants,
etc. The Stars and Stripes were not displayed, but a white palmetto
flag, after solemn prayer, was unfurled in its stead. Disunion
was here inaugurated. November 13th the Legislature of South
Carolina stayed the collection of all debts due to citizens of non-
slaveholding States. It was not sufficient to repudiate the Union,
but honest debts must also be repudiated.

The convention thus called first met at Columbia, December 17th,
thence adjourned to Charleston, where (appropriately) on December
20, 1860, an Ordinance of Secession was passed reading thus:

"_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 day of May, in the year of our Lord 1788, whereby the Constitution
of the United States was ratified, and also, all acts and parts of
acts of the General Assem