American Historical Ephemera and Photography

An Ordinance. To dissolve the Union between the State of South Carolina and other States...under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America." N.p., [Charleston: Evans & Cogswell?] n.d. [ca 20 September 1860].

11 1/2 x 8 in. letterpress broadside (completely mounted to mat). 

ONE OF THE EARLIEST CONFEDERATE IMPRINTS: SOUTH CAROLINA'S OFFICIAL ACT OF SECESSION, POSSIBLY PRINTED FOR DELEGATES AT THE SECESSION CONVENTION IN COLUMBIA.

The broadside contains the brief text of the resolution dissolving the compact between South Carolina and the Federal government, which passed in an intense vote at the state capital in Columbia on 20 September 1860. The momentous resolution, which revoked South Carolina's 23 May 1778 ratification of the US Constitution, was primarily the work of Robert Barnwell Rhett, editor of the Charleston Mercury, which printed the broadside immediately after the ordinance passed, proclaiming "The Union is Dissolved!" (offered as Lot 25 in this auction). 

The broadside is presented as a "reading copy," often used in debates, with each line of text carefully numbered and printed double spaced, allowing for manuscript notations. It is highly possible that a limited number of copies were printed for the delegates' use at the 20 September 1860 meeting in Columbia. Although lacking publication information, the broadside may have been printed by Evans & Cogswell of Charleston, who sometimes identified themselves as "Printers to the Convention," and who produced the lithographic facsimile of the original "ordinance" document (see Parrish & Willingham 3794).

Parrish & Willingham 3795. EXCEPTIONALLY RARE: Only four copies are recorded, the present, a copy that sold at Christie's 21 June 2005, lot 165, $66,000, and examples at the Huntington Library and Emory University.