23 1/2 x 12 in. letterpress broadside (creasing from old folds, scattered spotting, a few small chips to margins, tipped to mat).

THE FIRST CONFEDERATE IMPRINT.

FIRST EDITION broadside printed a mere 15 minutes after the unanimous vote of the South Carolina legislature to secede with the bold proclamation, "The Union is Dissolved." (Sabin 87439). Announcing that the ordinance "passed unanimously at 1.15 o'clock, P.M., December 20th, 1860" followed by the text and explanation.

In the hotly contested 1860 presidential election, South Carolina held no popular vote and the 8 electors chosen by the state legislature unanimously awarded their votes to the Southern Democratic candidate John Breckinridge. Outraged by Lincoln's victory, the people of Charleston demanded South Carolina secede. Within a few days, two Senators from South Carolina submitted their resignations, and on 20 December 1860, the South Carolina legislature unanimously voted to enact the "ordinance" posted on the broadside. The Charleston Mercury, one of the outspoken venues for States' Rights activists throughout the South, jubilantly declared South Carolina's independence by printing the broadside immediately after the ordinance passed. One of the editors commented that "within a very few minutes after the announcement of the secession vote, our messengers arrived...in less than fifteen minutes our Extras, containing the long looked for Ordinance, were being thrown off by fast presses and distributed among the eager multitude that thronged under the great banner of the 'Southern Confederacy.' As the brief and expressive words of the ordinance were read from our bulletin by the crowd, cheer after cheer went up in honor of the glorious event." (Smithsonian National Museum of American History, AF.32960).

Hummel, Southeastern Broadsides 2434; Sabin 87439; Streeter II 1271.