Disunion Feed

"CHARLESTON MERCURY EXTRA: Passed unanimously at 1.15 o'clock, P.M. December 20th, 1860. An Ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her [...] THE UNION IS DISSOLVED!"

The Rhett family's Charleston Mercury — the organ of immediate, separate-state secession — stopped its press to set this broadside within the hour of the vote. It is the movement's triumphant bulletin; the sober legal act itself is the next card. Verified against the Mississippi State University (Scholars Junction) reproduction of the original single-sheet extra; banner lines joined with [...].

Read it in the original — Charleston Mercury Extra, Dec 20, 1860 ↗

"We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained [...] that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of "The United States of America," is hereby dissolved."

The operative act, adopted at Charleston at 1.15 p.m. — the whole of it repeals South Carolina's 1788 ratification of the Constitution and declares the Union dissolved. It names no cause; the reasons came four days later (the Declaration of Immediate Causes). The first state out. Middle repeal clause elided with an ellipsis; verified verbatim against the Wikisource transcription.

Read it in the original — Ordinance of Secession, Dec 20, 1860 ↗