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Chapter 1: secession.
The fifth day of October, 1860, is the initial point of the
American Rebellion.
Its conception, animus, and probably its plans, lay much farther back.
It had been seriously proposed once or twice before, but it was then that its formal organization was begun.
On that day
Governor Gist, of
South Carolina, wrote a confidential circular letter, which he despatched by the hand of a special messenger, to the governors of what were commonly designated the
Cotton States.
In this letter he asked an interchange of opinions which he might be at liberty to submit to a consultation of leading men of
South Carolina.
He said
South Carolina would unquestionably call a convention as soon as it was ascertained that a majority of
Lincoln electors were chosen in the then pending presidential election.
“If a single State secedes,” he said, “she will follow her. If no other State takes the lead,
South Carolina will secede (in my opinion) alone, if she has any assurance that she will be soon followed by another or other States; otherwise it is doubtful.”
He asked information, and advised concerted action.
North Carolina was first to respond.
The people would
