Page:Nullification Controversy in South Carolina.djvu/342

Rh legislature did at once, and thus the dominant party dispossessed the only two Union generals in the state, James Blair and James Rogers. The election recurred again to the people, but, it was asked, was not this one move toward robbing the people of their elective franchise?

Section six provided that on April 10 the commission of every militia officer of the state should be vacated. On April 11 an election would take place throughout the state for the purpose of choosing officers to fill the places of those who had been turned out. In some districts Union men would be elected; if they should refuse to accept the office and take the oath prescribed, the colonel would appoint men to fill the vacancies thus occasioned; and if the person appointed refused to accept the office, he was to be tried by a court martial, from which there was no appeal, and was to be fined $20.

Another section of this "warlike act" provided that the buttons worn upon the uniforms of all officers should bear the "Palmetto Emblem." At a time of less excitement the palmetto button would not have been objected to; but at this time, since this emblem had been adopted as the insignia of a party whose sole object seemed to be the