" Mr. Inglis
said: "Most of us have had this matter under consideration for the last
twenty years; and I presume that we have by this time arrived at a
decision upon the subject." Mr. Keitt said: "I have been engaged in
this movement ever since I entered political life; * * * we have
carried the body of this Union to its last resting place, and now we
will drop the flag over its grave." Mr. Barnwell Rhett said: "The
Secession of South Carolina is not an event of a day. It is not
anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or by the non-execution of
the Fugitive Slave Law. It has been a matter which has been gathering
head for thirty years." Mr. Gregg said: "If we undertake to set forth
all the causes, do we not dishonor the memory of all the statesmen of
South Carolina, now departed, who commenced forty years ago a war
against the tariff and against internal improvement, saying nothing of
the United States Bank, and other measures which may now be regarded as
obsolete."
On the 20th of December, 1860--the fourth day of the sittings--the
Ordinance of Secession was reported by the Committee, and was at once
unanimously passed, as also was a resolution that "the passage of the
Ordinance be proclaimed by the firing of artillery and ringing of the
bells of the city, and such other demonstrations as the people may deem
appropriate on the passage of the great Act of Deliverance and Liberty;"
after which the Convention jubilantly adjourned to meet, and ratify,
that evening.
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