Union Dissolved!

"Charleston Mercury Extra: Passed unanimously at 1:15 o'clock, p.m., December 20, 1860.
An ordinance to dissolve the Union. . . ." [Charleston, South Carolina, 1860]
Broadside
Rare Book & Special Collections Division
Gift of Alfred Whital Stern, 1953 (43.13)

On December 6, 1860, the people of South Carolina voted for delegates to a convention whose decision was a foregone conclusion. "The only questions," one observer wrote, "are when shall she secede, and what she shall then do." The convention assembled in Charleston on December 18, the committee of 169 voted unanimously for secession from the United States. Within minutes of its passage the ordinance appeared as a Charleston Mercury extra edition.