deal of trial, had for more than three decades proven his fidelity and evidenced his devoted patriotism. Upon the organization of the Convention Hon. David F. Jamison was chosen president-a citizen, who, in the graces of an accomplished gentleman, and in his chivalric spirit, was a type of the men who had made the history and who illustrated the civilization of his State.

Without unnecessary delay such committees were appointed by him as were necessary to formulate the work of the Convention. Most important among these was the committee to which was entrusted the duty of preparing an address setting forth the causes which induced and justified the secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union and of preparing an Ordinance of Secession.

The committee to draft a statement of the causes which justified the secession of South Carolina was composed of the following delegates: C. G. Memminger, F. H. Wardlaw, R. W. Barnwell, J. P. Richardson, B. H. Rutledge, J. E. Jenkins, P. E. Duncan.

To draft an Ordinance of Secession: John A. Inglis, R. B. Rhett, James Chestnut, Jr., James L. Orr, Maxey Gregg, B. F. Dunkin, W. H. Hutson.

In anticipation of the action of the Convention, and as a part of the preliminary proceedings of that body, Mr. Memminger prepared the following "Suggestions for the Declaration and Ordinance of Secession to be proposed to the Convention," which were printed for the use of that body:

The State of South Carolina, having determined to secede from the Union of the United States of America and to resume her separate and equal place among nations, deems it due to herself, to the United States, and to the other nations of the world, that she should declare the reasons which have led to this result.

In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire which embraced Great Britain undertook to make laws for the government of that portion which embraced America. A struggle for the right of self-govern

ment ensued, which resulted, on the fourth July, 1776, in a declaration, by the thirteen American colonies, "that they are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do."

They further solemnly declared that whenever any "form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute a new government." Deeming the government of Great Britain, to which they were then subject, to have become destructive of these ends, they declared that the Colonies "are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence, each of the thirteen States proceeded to exercise its separate sovereignty, adopted for itself a constitution, and appointed officers for the administration of government in all its departments-Legislative, Executive and Judicial. For purposes of defense they united their arms and their counsels, and in 1778 they entered into a league known as the Articles of Confederation, whereby they agreed to entrust the administration of their external relations to a common agent known as the Congress of the United States, expressly declaring, in the first article, "that each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled."

Under this Confederation the War of the Revolution was carried on, and on the 3d of September, 1783, the contest ended, and a definitive treaty was signed by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged the independence of the Colonies in the following terms:

"ARTICLE I.-His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free, sovereign and independent States; that he treats with them as such; and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof."

Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colonies-namely, the right of a people to govern itself, and the right to abolish a government which becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of these principles was the fact that each Colony became and was recognized by the mother country as a free, sovereign and independent State.

In 1787 deputies were appointed by the States to revise the Articles of Confederation, and on the 17th of September, 1787, these deputies recommended, for the adoption of the States, new articles of union, known as the Constitution of the United States. The parties to whom this Constitution was submitted were the several sovereign States; they were to agree or disagree, and when nine agreed, the compact was to take effect among those concurring; and the general government, as the common agent, was then to be invested with their authority.

Duties were charged on the several States by this Constitution, and the exercise of certain powers restrained, which necessarily implied their continued existence as sovereign States. But, to remove all doubt, an amendment was added, which declared that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. On 23d of May, 1788, and the 20th of January, 1790, South Carolina, by conventions of her people, passed ordinances assenting to this Constitution and its amendments, and, shortly afterwards, altered her own Constitution to conform herself to the new obligations she had undertaken.

Thus was established by compact between the States, a government with defined objects and powers, limited to the express words of the grant, and to so much more only as was necessary to execute the power granted. That government, like every other, was subject to the two great principles asserted by the Declaration of Independence, but the mode of its formation subjected it to another fundamental principle. Like every other compact or agreement between two or more parties, the obligations of this Constitution were mutual, and the failure of one party to perform a material undertaking, entirely releases the obligation of the other. In cases of admitted failure, the right of the other party to set aside the compact is perfect; and where the fact of failure is disputed, unless an arbiter is provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment, to determine the fact with all its consequences.

The state of facts upon which South Carolina is now called to act, is disembarrassed of this uncertainty, and makes perfect her right to secede from the Union. The Constitution of that Union expressly provides that fugitives from justice and fugitives from labor, shall be delivered up by the State into which they may escape, the former to the public authorities, and the latter to the private owner. These stipulations were such material elements to the compact that it could not have been made without them; and, so important was that in relation to labor, that it had previously been made a condition, by the State of Virginia, for the surrender of that territory which now composes the States north of the Ohio river.

The general government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these laws

were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the Northern States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the general government have ceased to effect. the objects of the Constitution. Fifteen of the States have passed laws which either nullify the acts of Congress, or render useless any attempt to carry them into effect. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have each placed such laws on their statute book. In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder and inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. Thus the constitutional compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slave-holding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from its obligation.

The ends for which this Constitution was framed are declared by itself to be to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

These ends it endeavored to accomplish by a Federal government, in which each State was recognized as an equal, and had separate control over its own institutions. The right of property in slaves was recognized by giving to their owners political rights, and burthening them with direct taxes for three-fifths of their number; by authorizing the importation of them for twenty years, and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives.

But the ends for which that government was instituted have all been defeated by the people of the non-slave-holding States. The institution of slavery has been denounced by them as sinful; societies have been established among them, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and eloign the property of their Southern neighbors. Thousands of slaves have been encouraged and assisted to leave their homes; and those who remain have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.

For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has finally secured to its aid the powers of the common government. The last election for President has advanced to that office a man who has distinctly and deliberately declared that States with different domestic institutions-some free labor, some slave labor-cannot exist together in the Union. The party which has elected him is altogether sectional. It has drawn a geographical line across the Union, on one side of which are the ruling majority, and on the other the subject minority. That party is united together by a sectional question, and is urged on by sectional interest and religious animosity. It has an

nounced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory; that the judicial tribunals shall be sectionalized and that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease to exist throughout the United States.

The election gives to this party possession of the government on the 4th of March; the guaranties of the Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost, and the government will have become destructive of the ends for which it was created. The South will no longer have the power of self-government or self-protection; and the hope of remedy within the Union is rendered vain, by the fact that Northern opinion has invested a great political error with the dangerous sanctions of a more erroneous religious belief.

We, therefore, the people of South Carolina, by our delegates in Convention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do hereby solemnly declare, that the Union heretofore existing between this State and the other States of America, is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina resumes her position among the nations of the world, as a free, sovereign and independent State; with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.

And, for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

1. Be it, therefore, ordained, By the people of South Carolina, by their delegates, now met and sitting in Convention, that the Ordinances adopted by us in Convention, on the 23d of May, 1788, and 20th January, 1790, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified and amended; and, also, all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State, ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, be and they are hereby repealed; that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and the other States united in the Union, heretofore known as the United States of America, is hereby dissolved; and that the citizens and inhabitants of South Carolina are released from all obligation of obedience to the Constitution of the United States.

And be it further ordained, That all acts of the Congress of the United States shall cease to have any force or effect in South Carolina, saving, that any criminal under sentence, shall suffer the penalty of his crime, under the charge of the proper State officers, unless pardoned by the Governor of this State.

3. Be it further ordained, That all judgments and decrees of the courts of the United States heretofore rendered and entered of record in this State shall have the same force and effect in South Carolina as they had before the passing of this Ordinance, and may be enforced in the proper courts of South Carolina having jurisdiction of the like cases.