Proceedings of the Convention

Before night the ordinance of secession was engrossed on a sheet of parchment; and at the appointed time, in the evening, Institute Hall was crowded with eager spectators to witness the signing of the instrument. Back of the president's chair was suspended a banner of cotton cloth, on which was painted a significant device. At the bottom was a mass of broken and discolored blocks of hewn stones, on each of which were the name and arms of a free-labor State. Rising from this mass were two columns made of perfect blocks of stone, each bearing the name and arms of a slave-labor State. The keystone of an arch that crowned the two columns had the name and arms of South Carolina upon it, and it bore a figure of Calhoun. In the space between the columns was a palmetto tree, with a rattlesnake coiled around its trunk, and on a ribbon the words, "Southern Republic." Beneath all, in large letters, were the significant words, "Built from the Ruins."

This flag foreshadowed the designs of the Secessionists to overthrow the Republic and build an empire upon its ruins whose corner-stone should be slavery. To that end the members of the Convention proceeded to sign the ordinance in the presence of the governor of the State, the members of the Legislature, and other dignitaries of the land. When the act was finished there was deep silence. Then the Rev. Dr. Bachman, with white, flowing locks, advanced on the platform whereon the president sat, and with uplifted hands implored Almighty God to bless the people engaged in the act and to favor the undertaking. Then President Jamison exhibited the instrument to the people, read it, and said: "The Ordinance of Secession has been signed and ratified, and I proclaim the State of South Carolina an independent commonwealth." The people shouted their approval; and so closed the first great act in the terrible drama of the late Civil War. A few months afterward, every building in Charleston in which public movements for the destruction of the Union had taken place were accidentally destroyed by fire; and late one evening in 1866, after the "Confederate States of America," organized in Montgomery early in 1861, had become a thing of the past, I heard the mournful voice of a screech-owl in the blackened tower of the Circular Church which stood within a few rods of the grave of Calhoun in St. Philip's church-yard.

In the meantime, the National capital had become the theatre of stirring events. The proceedings of the Southern politicians had been watched by the loyal people of the country with intense interest and anxiety, especially by the mercantile and manufacturing classes. To these the Southern planters and merchants were indebted to the amount of full two hundred million dollars, and at the middle of November, remittances from the South had almost ceased, owing to various causes. Howell Cobb, one of the most active of the secret enemies of the Republic, was then Mr. Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury, and had adroitly managed to strike a paralyzing blow at the public credit, months before Mr. Lincoln's election. When he entered the cabinet in 1857, he found the Government coffers so overflowing, that the treasury notes next due were bought in; in the autumn of 1860, the treasury was empty, and he was in the market as a borrower of money to carry on the ordinary operations of the Government. His management had created such distrust in financial circles, that he was compelled to pay ruinous premiums at a time when money was never more abundant in the country.

This wrecking of the Government by destroying its credit was a part of Cobb's financial scheme for the benefit of his associate Secessionists. Another of his schemes for the supposed benefit of the South was foreshadowed in a letter (the original is before me), written by William H. Trescott, then Assistant Secretary of State, to the editor of the Charleston Mercury, dated "Washington, Nov. 1, 1860." In that letter, by permission of Mr. Cobb, Mr. Trescott gives that gentleman's views concerning the situation. After some remarks about deferring overt acts of rebellion until the 4th of March following, Mr. Trescott wrote: "Mr. Cobb desires me to impress upon you his conviction that any attempt to precipitate the actual issue upon this Administration will be most mischievous--calculated to produce differences of opinion and destroy unanimity. He thinks it of great importance that the cotton crop should go forward at once, and that the money should be in the hands of the people, that the cry of popular distress shall not be heard at the outset of this move." Mr. Cobb's motive for his recommendation is made apparent by the fact that it was a common practice for the cotton planter to receive pay for his crops in advance. The crop then to "go forward" was already paid for. The money to be received on its delivery was for the next year's crop, which would never be delivered. It was a deliberate scheme to cheat Northern men out of many millions of dollars--a scheme which the honest cotton-growers would not have sanctioned had they been aware of it. But in this, as in all other plans then ripening for a rebellion, the politicians would not trust the people with their secrets.