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[345] our State desires (and I unite my voice with him in that opinion), that the action of the Convention be immediate and prompt. [Applause.] It will give the cause strength, not only in Alabama, as we believe, and of which I have a right to speak, but I believe it will give the cause strength in the other States, which are united with you in sentiment.

On motion of Mr. Inglis, it was unanimously, and amid tremendous cheering,

Resolved, That it is the opinion of the Convention that the State of South Carolina should forthwith secede from the Federal Union, known as the United States of America.

The small-pox then raging in Columbia, the Convention adjourned to “Secession Hall” in Charleston, where it met next day. Mr. Buchanan's last Annual Message having been received, Judge Magrath, of Charleston, offered the following, which was debated next day, but does not seem to have passed:

Resolved, That so much of the Message of the President of the United States as relates to what he designates the property of the United States in South Carolina, be referred to a Committee to report of what such property consists, how the same was acquired, or, whether the purposes for which it was so acquired can be enjoyed by the United States after the State of South Carolina shall have seceded. consistently with the dignity and safety of the State; and that said Committee further report the value of the property of the United States not in South Carolina, and the value of the share thereof to which South Carolina may be entitled upon an equal division thereof among the States. [Great applause in the galleries.]

The President announced an address from a portion of the Legislature of Georgia, which he thought should not be made public; so it was not. It was afterward understood to be an appeal from fifty-two members of said Legislature for delay and consultation among the Slave States.

The next day, Hon. J. A. Elmore communicated a dispatch from the Governor of Alabama, in these words:

Montgomery, Ala., Dec. 17, 1860.
Tell the Convention to listen to no proposition of compromise or delay.


Among the utterances of this Convention, the following seem especially significant and memorable:

Mr. Parker said:

Mr. President, it appears to me, with great deference to the opinions that have been expressed, that the public mind is fully made up to the great occasion that now awaits us. It is no spasmodic effort that has come suddenly upon us; it has been gradually culminating for a long period of thirty years, At last, it has come to that point where we may say, the matter is entirely right.

Mr. Inglis said:

Mr. President, if there is any gentleman present who wishes to debate this matter, of course this body will hear him. But, as to delay for the purpose of discussion, I, for one am opposed to it. As my friend (Mr. Parker) has said, most of us have had this matter under consideration for the last twenty years; and I presume that we have, by this time, arrived at a decision upon the subject.

And Hon. Lawrence M. Keitt--

I have been engaged in this movement ever since I entered political life. I am content with what has been done to-day, and with what will take place to-morrow. We have carried the body of this Union to its last resting-place, and now we will drop the flag over its grave. After that is done, I am ready to adjourn, and leave the remaining ceremonies for to-morrow.

And Mr. Robert Barnwell Rhett--

The Secession of South Carolina is not an event of a day. It is not anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or by the non-execution of the Fugitive Slave Law. It has been a matter which has been gathering head for thirty years. * * * The point in which I differ from my friend is this: He says he thought it expedient to put this great question before the world upon this simple matter of wrongs — on the question of Slavery; and that question turned upon the Fugitive Slave Law. Now, in regard to the Fugitive Slave Law, I myself doubted its constitutionality, and doubted it on the floor of the Senate, when I was a member of that body. The States, acting

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