Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/375

Rh tion is properly called an ordinance because of its supremely important character, and it is noticeable that all measures were adopted which would give dignity to this extraordinary assertion of the sovereignty residing in the people of the State. It was by the accident of its legislature being assembled according to the usage of South Carolina to choose presidential electors, that this State gained its distinctive precedence in the procession of States into the Confederacy. In the report of one of the committees of the convention the belief is expressed that &quot; the sister States of the South will correctly interpret our action in taking the initiative as arising by no means from any presumptuous arrogance, but from the advanced position which circumstances have given to this State in the line of procedure for the great design, the rights, the security and the very existence of the slaveholding South.&quot;

The South Carolina legislature being in session on the presidential election day directed the vote of the State to be cast for Breckinridge and proceeded on the next day to consider the grave situation created by the success of the sectional party. An act carefully worded was passed calling for a convention of the State to meet at Columbia, December 17th, and providing for the election of delegates. The retiring governor, Gist, in his final message expressed his trust that &quot;by the 28th of December, no flag but the Palmetto will float over any part of South Carolina,&quot; and his successor, Governor Pickens, in his inaugural condemned the great overt act of the people in the Northern States at the ballot box in the exercise of their sovereign power at the polls from which there is no higher appeal recognized under our system of government in its ordinary operations. After passing the convention bill and a few other measures called for by the proposed secession the legislature took a recess until the 17th day of December, which had been designated as the day on which the convention was to assemble.