“
[
104]
dissolved!”
An immense crowd in front of the
Hall caught up the words with the wildest enthusiasm, and they went from lip to lip, until the whole city was alive with emotion.
A placard printed at the
Mercury office, half an hour after the vote was taken, bearing a copy of the ordinance, and the words, in large letters, the
Union is dissolved!
was scattered broad-cast over the town, and diffused universal joy. Groups gathered in many places to hear it read; and from each went up shout after shout, which attested the popular satisfaction.
All business was suspended.
The streets of
Charleston were filled with excited people huzzaing for a Southern Confederacy, and several women made a public display of their so-called patriotism, by appearing on the crowded side-walks with “secession bonnets,”
1 the invention of a Northern milliner in
Charleston.
Small
Palmetto flags, with a lone star on each, fluttered with white handkerchiefs out of many a window, and large
 |
|
Calhoun's tomb in St. Philps Church-Yard. |
ones waved over every public and many private buildings.
The bells of the churches rang out merry peals; and these demonstrations of delight were accompanied by the roar of cannon.
Some enthusiastic young men went to the church-yard where the remains of
John C. Calhoun reposed, and there, with singular appropriateness, they formed a circle around his tomb, and made a solemn vow to devote their “lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” to the “cause of
South Carolina independence.”
2 And
Paul H. Hayne, author of “The temptations of
Venus” and other poems, inspired by the occasion, produced, before he slept that night, a “Song of deliverance,” in which is the following allusion to
South Carolina and her position:--
See! see! they quail and cry!
The dogs of Rapine fly,
Struck by the terror of her mien, her glance of lightning fire!
And the mongrel, hurrying pack
In whimpering fear fall back,
With the sting of baffled hatred hot, and the rage of false desire.
O, glorious Mother Land!
In thy presence, stern and grand,
Unnumbered fading hopes rebloom, and faltering hearts grow brave,
And a consentaneous shout
To the answering heavens rings out--
“Off with the livery of disgrace, the baldric of the Slave!”
