CIVIL WAR – Abbeville Banner 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 under the compact entitled 'The Constitution of the United States of America.' … The Union is Dissolved! [Charleston: Charleston Mercury, 1860].

THE UNION IS DISSOLVED!

An extremely rare and unrecorded variant of the first printed announcement of the secession of the State of South Carolina—the birthplace of the Confederacy. The election of 1860, which thrust the Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln into the White House, was also the decisive catalyst to secession and Civil War. The circumstances of the 1850s had allowed southern fire-eaters to pave a road to rebellion. The initial stages of secession required little contemplation: "because the ground had long since been plowed and planted, the harvest of disunion came quickly after the thunderstorm of Lincoln's election" (McPherson). Amidst fireworks, public rallies, playing bands and militia musters, the South Carolina legislature met in a special convention to pass the declaration of secession so boldly announced on this broadside: "We the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention Assembled, do declare and ordain...that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'The United States of America,' is hereby dissolved." This began the avalanche. Within weeks six other states joined: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. The more cautious states in the upper South wavered, but the momentum towards disunion ultimately carried them into the Confederacy as well.

The present copy was more than likley printed on the press of the Charleston Mercury, the same press that produced the well-known edition (See Hummel, Southeastern Broadsides 2434; Sabin 87439; Streeter sale 1271). Following the initial run, it is belived that the Mercury's printer removed theCharleston Mercury title head and replaced it with the Abbeville Banner title head and ran additional copies of the ordnance. This version was produced most likely to pay tribute to Abbeville, South Carolina, whose residents met on 22 November 1860 to cast the first vote in the state in favor out South Carolina's secession from the Union. Ironically, although the town is known as the "Birthplace of the Confederacy," it was also where Jefferson Davis held his final cabinet meeting on 2 May 1865 where he acknowledged officially that the Confederate government had been dissolved. Extremely rare. Apart from the present copy, we are only aware of one other example from a photograph, apparently in a private collection.

Folio broadside, 608 x 311mm (light scattered foxing, extremely minor chips to a few places at margins well clear of text, a few small pinholes at creases, light ink transfer).