That a secession movement would begin somewhere in the South
before the end of 1860 was a foregone conclusion. South Carolina
was the logical place, and in South Carolina the inevitable
occurred. The presidential election was quickly followed by an
election of delegates, on the 6th of December, to consider in
convention the relations of the State with the Union. The
arguments before the Convention were familiar and had been
advocated since 1851. The leaders of the disunionists were the
same who had led the unsuccessful movement of ten years before.
The central figure was Rhett, who never for a moment had wavered.
Consumed his life long by the one idea of the independence of
South Carolina, that stern enthusiast pressed on to a triumphant
conclusion. The powers which had defeated him in 1851 were now
either silent or converted, so that there was practically no
opposition. In a burst of passionate zeal the independence of
South Carolina was proclaimed on December 20, 1860, by an
ordinance of secession.
Simultaneously, by one of those dramatic coincidences which make
history stranger than fiction, Lincoln took a step which
supplemented this action and established its tragic significance.
What that step was will appear in a moment.
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