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Volume 13
Drifting to Disunion
T
or not to allow slavery. The Southern delegates believed that
he year 1860 opened in a country filled with
slave owners — backed by the Constitution and affirmed
sharp edges.
under Dred Scott Supreme Court decision — were entitled
The patchwork quilt of compromises and court
to protection of their property — slave or otherwise — anydecisions stitched together over decades to resolve the slavery
where.
question was not only fraying at the edges but now was comIt was that federal protection for slavery in the territories
ing apart at the seams.
that was the rub at the convention. The issue was submitted
Deadly violence in Kansas, and more recently at Harpers
to the platform committee, which split on the issue. “Cotton
Ferry, seemed to indicate that the anger building between free
state” delegates supported absolute government protection
and slave America was growing beyond the control of judges
for slavery in the territories and the Douglas contingent stuck
and politicians.
with the right of the citizens there to decide the question. The
But politicians were going to get one last, great chance. It
convention, by majority vote, supported the Douglas posiwas a presidential election year and maybe... just maybe…
tion. And that did it. Fifty Southern delegates left the room
an idea or a man might emerge to bring the country back
and did not return.
from the brink — to again bandage a sore festering since the
Their departure made it impossible for Douglas to reach
Constitutional Convention — and keep the country from flythe two-thirds of the original set of delegates required. The
ing apart.
Democratic Party left Charleston without a nominee and in
The Democratic Party seemed to have the best shot at
shambles.
unifying the increasingly polarized citizenry. The Democrats'
Slavery, as historian Bruce Catton described it, had finominating convention was set in Charleston SC — a city not
nally proven to be the American political system’s one “undiexactly the poster child for “Union.”
gestable lump.”
In hindsight it was an odd collection of people playing
It was the Republicans’ turn a few weeks later in Chicago.
roles that April on what historian William W. Freehling called
The long list of nomination contenders — led by New Yorker
“Charleston’s eerie stage.” Mississippi Senator Jefferson DaWilliam Seward — all professed opposition to slavery in the
vis, who in less than a year would become president of the
territories and exhibited various degrees of hostility to the
Confederates States of America, was one of the leaders of the
“peculiar institution” itself. Only five slave states, and none
moderate Southerners. One of Davis’s most earnest supporters
from the Deep South, sent delegates.
— at least at the beginning of the process — was none other
So it wasn’t a matter so much of policy as of politics for
than Benjamin Butler from Massachusetts, who soon would
the Republicans as they decided their nominee. In a masterbecome a Union general and known throughout the South as
ful convention campaign, dark horse Abraham Lincoln was
“The Beast.”
Mercury special edition.
nominated.
Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas was the frontrunner for Charleston
Image courtesy South Carolina Confederate Relic Room
The Democrats tried again, this time in Baltimore. With
the nomination at Charleston. His supporters, headquartered and Military Museum
most of the Charleston dissenters missing,
at the Hibernian Hall just across Meeting
the convention nominated Douglas, who
Street from the convention site at Institute
held to his long-standing middle ground
Hall, believed they could muster the twoposition. Shortly after, the “Southern”
thirds of the delegate votes required for
Democrats advanced Kentuckian John
nomination.
C. Breckinridge who ran on a platform
The Douglas candidacy, though, faced
supporting slavery – in the territories and
a number of problems, not the least of
otherwise.
which was hostility from the Southern
Earlier, a group of veteran politicians
delegations. Most hated his “Popular Sovcalling themselves the Constitutional
ereignty” doctrine, holding that settlers
in the territories could decide whether
The 1860 presidential candidates: Lincoln, Douglas, Bell and Breckinridge
C O N T I N U E s O N PAG E 2
Maryland
Antietam Campaign,
Booth escape, Baltimore
and more,
see pages 3–8
West Virginia
Pennsylvania
Gettysburg campaign and
battle, National Museum,
see page 9–11
1861 in the mountains,
John Brown’s Raid
and more,
see pages 12–19
North Carolina
Battlefields and sites
including Fort Fisher,
Bentonville
see page 20–27
South Carolina
Fort Sumter, Sherman's
Campaign, more,
see pages 28–31
w w w. C i v i l Wa r Tr a v e l e r. c o m
Virginia
Overland and Peninsula
Campaigns, Lee’s Retreat,
and more,
see pages 35–51
2
CIVIL WAR TRAVELER
DRIFTING to DISUNION
C O N T I N U E D from PAG E 1
Union Party, nominated Tennessean John
Bell who ran under the motto “the Union
as it is, and the Constitution as it was.”
So the race was set and the edges
were sharper still. The man in the middle,
Douglas, was taking shots from both sides
but was the only candidate to mount a
serious campaign nationwide. Lincoln
stood on his record and said little, leaving some Southern politicians to believe
he was capable of almost any atrocity
aimed at them — including abolishing
what they believed was a Constitutionally sanctioned way of life.
By the Nov. 6 election day some
Southerners were bracing for a Lincoln
presidency. Others welcomed it, hoping it would be the “last straw,” pushing
Southern states out of the Union.
Lincoln did not win a majority of the
votes cast that day. He was not even on
the ballot in Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida
or Georgia. But he won a plurality of the
popular vote (1,865,908 of 4,685,561
votes cast) and walloped everyone in
the Electoral College (180 votes
to second-place Breckinridge with
72). Douglas collected only 12
electoral votes but finished second
in the popular vote.
It didn’t take long for the Southern states to react to Lincoln's
election. It was as if a great weight
of uncertainty, building for decades, was suddenly lifted. The
final insult had been delivered,
some Southern leaders now pronounced, and it was time to act.
No state acted more quickly and decisively than South Carolina.
Within days, the state’s two U.S. senators resigned and the legislature called
a convention for Dec. 17 in the state’s
capital, Columbia. Local communities in
South Carolina held rallies and elected
delegates to what now was apparently a
“secession” convention.
The 170-member delegation assembled at the First Baptist Church in Columbia on the appointed date and got to
work. But before much could be done,
the fear of a smallpox outbreak in the city
forced an adjournment to Charleston.
Fence outside St. Andrew's Hall
The delegates were called to order
again at St. Andrew’s Hall on Broad Street
and prepared for a vote. There was no debate or division in Charleston this time.
On Dec. 20, 1860, the convention voted
169–0 to repeal the state’s 1788 ratification of the U.S. Constitution and secede
from the Union.
Finding that St. Andrew's Hall was too
small for an official signing ceremony,
the delegates adjourned once again and
met that evening a few blocks away at
Institute Hall, the place where the Demo-
cratic Convention had come apart
nine months earlier.
Following the two-hour ceremony, church bells rang, fireworks
exploded, special newspaper editions came off presses, and the
streets filled with celebrants.
The noise certainly carried
across Charleston Harbor to the
small garrison of U.S. soldiers
stationed at Fort Moultrie. The
new independent state (nation?)
of South Carolina now felt it had a
legal claim to the fort.
The commander at Moultrie, Maj.
Robert Anderson, had grown increasingly
uneasy as he watched events in Charleston unfold. He felt the fort’s position on
a spit of land jutting into the harbor was
vulnerable to attack.
So, on the day after Christmas, six
days after the grand signing ceremony
downtown, Anderson prepared to move.
That night, after spiking the fort’s guns,
Anderson ordered his men to row out to
an unfinished stronghold at the mouth of
the harbor… Fort Sumter. ▼
Related events
First Baptist Church, Columbia
Hibernian Hall
South Carolina sites associated with 1860 election/secession
Charleston
Unfortunately, the two buildings most
associated with the Democratic and Secession conventions were destroyed in
an 1861 fire. The site of Institute Hall
(126 Meeting St.) is noted with an historical marker on the current building.
The original cast iron fence in front of
St. Andrew’s Hall still stands on Broad
Street, between King and Legare streets.
A marker on the fence describes the site.
Hibernian Hall, home to the Steven
A. Douglas delagation during the 1860
National Democratic Convention, still
stands at 105 Meeting St.
The South Carolina Historical Society,
100 Meeting St., is located in the 1827
Fireproof Building. The original “Secession Banner” that hung over the convention when the Ordinance was signed is
on display there with a small exhibit of
related items. The building is open during
regular business hours.
The Charleston Museum, 360 Meeting St., offers an excellent exhibit with
numerous items of furniture used during
the Secession Convention
The Confederate Museum, 188 Meeting St., includes many items relating to
secession including a flag hoisted over
the Customs House the day after the convention voted.
The Fort Sumter Education Center
features an excellent exhibit highlighting
the events leading to war, and the Fort
Moultrie visitor center includes a small
exhibit highlighting the Dec. 26 evacuation..
Columbia
First Baptist Church, 1306 Hampton
St. – This church sanctuary appears much
as it did Dec. 17, 1860, where the first
secession convention was held. A small
exhibit here includes many related items.
The church office is open during business
hours.
South Carolina Confederate Relic
Room and Military Museum, 301 Gervais St. – The secession-related exhibit includes one of the 200 authorized copies
of South Carolina’s Ordinance of Secession and other items.
South Carolina State Museum, 301
Gervais St. – The secession exhibit includes another copy of the Ordinance.
Other South Carolina sites
Beaufort – The Maxcy-Rhett House,
known as the “Secession House” at 1113
Craven St., was one of the Rhett family
homes and was the site of many early
secession meetings and discussions.
Abbeville and Cheraw – Both towns
were the site of early public meetings
urging secession in 1860. Check at the
visitor centers for the sites of historical
markers. ■
w w w. C i v i l Wa r Tr a v e l e r. c o m
Among events planned to commemorate the dramatic events in
1860 South Carolina are a seminar, “A House Divided” scheduled
Dec. 3–4 in Charleston, a monthly
lecture series at Fort Moultie, and
special exhibitions of the South
Carolina Ordinance of Secession
at the South Carolina State House
in Columbia (Dec. 17) and the
Charleston Museum (Dec. 20).
Many other seminars and events
feature the Election of 1860. See
CivilWarTraveler.com/events for
details.
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