How You Can Help
The South Carolina Division will erect an impressive monument to the memory of these patriots in the Charleston area during the Sesquicentennial. Your help is needed, and you can be part of this major project. There are several ways for camps, individuals, and businesses to memorialize a signer, an ancestor, a camp namesake, a camp, a family or an individual.
Front - Bottom
Front - Bottom, The Secession Ordinance.
Backside - A list of all the signers and their home districts.
Front - Top
Front - Top, Image of the men signing the ordinance in a window with a wreath as if you are looking into Institute Hall from the sidewalk.
Columbia Meeting Side of Monument
(This side will have an image of the First Baptist Church above the text).
The political storm that began in the early 1830’s had been gaining strength year by year, steadily increasing the sectional friction between the North and the South. Constitutional issues, slavery, foreign trade, westward expansion, and inequitable taxes were several of the many items of contention threatening to divide the young nation of states. With the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, the Southern states immediately began to consider secession.
In a state-wide election on December 6, 1860, specially called for by the South
Carolina General Assembly, the people of South Carolina chose delegates for a convention to consider the question of secession. The right of a state to secede from the Union was understood by all of the founding fathers as well as all of the states which joined together to form these United States. The 170 men elected to determine South Carolina’s course of action were the most highly respected in their communities.
The South Carolina Secession Convention assembled on December 17, 1860, at the First Baptist Church of Columbia. Opened in prayer by Reverend James C. Furman of Greenville, the convention elected David F. Jamison of Barnwell District as convention president. Because of a confirmed case of smallpox in Columbia, and fearing the possibility of an epidemic, the convention decided to relocate to Charleston. In the early morning hours of December 18, the men boarded the train and arrived in Charleston that afternoon.
The political storm that began in the early 1830’s had been gaining strength year by year, steadily increasing the sectional friction between the North and the South. Constitutional issues, slavery, foreign trade, westward expansion, and inequitable taxes were several of the many items of contention threatening to divide the young nation of states. With the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, the Southern states immediately began to consider secession.
In a state-wide election on December 6, 1860, specially called for by the South
Carolina General Assembly, the people of South Carolina chose delegates for a convention to consider the question of secession. The right of a state to secede from the Union was understood by all of the founding fathers as well as all of the states which joined together to form these United States. The 170 men elected to determine South Carolina’s course of action were the most highly respected in their communities.
The South Carolina Secession Convention assembled on December 17, 1860, at the First Baptist Church of Columbia. Opened in prayer by Reverend James C. Furman of Greenville, the convention elected David F. Jamison of Barnwell District as convention president. Because of a confirmed case of smallpox in Columbia, and fearing the possibility of an epidemic, the convention decided to relocate to Charleston. In the early morning hours of December 18, the men boarded the train and arrived in Charleston that afternoon.
Charleston Meeting Side of the Monument
(This side will have an image of the Institute Hall above the text).
Arriving in Charleston from Columbia on the afternoon of December 18, 1860,
the South Carolina Secession Convention met briefly in Institute Hall. A committee was assigned to draft an ordinance with John Inglis of Cheraw appointed committee chairman.
An ordinance was completed on December 19, and the convention met in St.
Andrew’s Hall on December 20 to consider the ordinance. Shortly after 1 P.M., a roll-call vote was taken, and the convention voted unanimously to adopt the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession. South Carolina was the first Southern state to secede from the Union and the only one to do so unanimously.
Signing of the ordinance took place in Institute Hall on the evening of December
20, 1860. Each of the men listed on this monument signed the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession. By virtue of this act, South Carolina reaffirmed its sovereignty as an independent republic as did their forebearers in 1776.
James H. Adams, Robert W. Barnwell, and James L. Orr were appointed by the
convention as ambassadors to the U.S. government to arrange for “the existing relations of the parties, and for the continual peace and amity between this commonwealth and the government in Washington.”
The South Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans dedicates this
monument to the men who represented the people of South Carolina at the South Carolina Secession Convention. Stalwarts in their communities, they were leaders in business, religion, medicine, law, education, and agriculture. No finer group of men has ever represented their state or its people.
Arriving in Charleston from Columbia on the afternoon of December 18, 1860,
the South Carolina Secession Convention met briefly in Institute Hall. A committee was assigned to draft an ordinance with John Inglis of Cheraw appointed committee chairman.
An ordinance was completed on December 19, and the convention met in St.
Andrew’s Hall on December 20 to consider the ordinance. Shortly after 1 P.M., a roll-call vote was taken, and the convention voted unanimously to adopt the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession. South Carolina was the first Southern state to secede from the Union and the only one to do so unanimously.
Signing of the ordinance took place in Institute Hall on the evening of December
20, 1860. Each of the men listed on this monument signed the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession. By virtue of this act, South Carolina reaffirmed its sovereignty as an independent republic as did their forebearers in 1776.
James H. Adams, Robert W. Barnwell, and James L. Orr were appointed by the
convention as ambassadors to the U.S. government to arrange for “the existing relations of the parties, and for the continual peace and amity between this commonwealth and the government in Washington.”
The South Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans dedicates this
monument to the men who represented the people of South Carolina at the South Carolina Secession Convention. Stalwarts in their communities, they were leaders in business, religion, medicine, law, education, and agriculture. No finer group of men has ever represented their state or its people.
