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 North America."

(Civil War) South Carolina Secession Convention

Edité par Evans and Cogswell, [Charleston, S.C., 1860

A propos de cet article

Broadside, 11-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches. One of the earliest Confederate imprints: South Carolina's official act of secession, printed for delegates at the secession convention. This first printing of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession, the document which caused the departure of South Carolina from the Union, set the nation irrevocably on the path to the Civil War. After Lincoln's election, South Carolina moved vigorously to follow through its threat to secede from the Union. A secession convention was called, and assembled at Charleston on December 20, 1860. Their entire business was to debate the issue of secession, which they favored overwhelmingly, and to settle on the wording of a secession ordinance. Within the day, the 169 members of the Convention voted unanimously for the ordinance. This is the printing of the ordinance made for the use of the delegates to the Convention. The ordinance was set up in the form of a "reading bill" or "slip bill," familiar to most delegates as the typical form of a legislative bill in working draft, with the body of the text in numbered, double-spaced lines to facilitate the making of corrections. Following the title, given above, the text reads: "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 twenty-third of May, in the Year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred 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Acts and parts of Acts of the General Assembly of this State, ratifying amendments to the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'The United States of America,' is hereby dissolved." Presumably only several hundred copies of this "slip bill" version of the Secession Ordinance were printed - just enough to distribute to the members of the convention. They were probably printed just before the convention began. Indeed, setting and printing it would have taken a few hours at most. After its passage, the ordinance would famously be published as a newspaper extra by the Charleston Mercury with the following words in bold below the text of the ordinance: The Union Is Dissolved! This is one of four extant examples of the slip bill, the others being examples at the Huntington Library, Emory University and one in private hands (being the example once belonging to Jay Snider, sold to him by the William Reese Company in 1997 and resold at the sale of his collection at Christies, June 21, 2005, lot 165, selling for $66,000). Parrish & Willingham 3795; Crandall 1888 Old folds. Nicely mounted, framed and glazed Broadside, 11-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches.

N° de réf. du vendeur 369308

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: 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 North America."
• Éditeur: Evans and Cogswell, [Charleston, S.C.
• Date de parution: 1860
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Americana