Many public men in the North urged peaceable secession, notably, Horace Greely.  Foreign eyes were turned anxiously toward America.  The South was sending out millions of pounds of cotton every year, of which the greater part went to England.  A London paper of this decade said: 

“The lives of nearly two million of our country are dependent upon the cotton crops of the States.  Should any dire calamity befall the land of cotton, a thousand of our merchant ships would rot idly in dock; ten thousand mills must stop their busy looms; two thousand mouths would starve for lack of food to feed them.”

In 1860, a Southern Senator said in congress;

  “There are 5,000,000 of people in Great Britain who live upon cotton. 
  Exhaust the supply one week, and all England is starving.  I tell you
  cotton is king.”

But the die was cast.  The ordinance of secession of South Carolina unanimously passed December 20, at a quarter past one o’clock.  Great crowds were outside the hall of conference awaiting results.  The Charleston Mercury issued an extra, of which six thousand copies were sold.  The chimes of St. Michaels pealed exultant notes; bells of all other churches simultaneously rang.  The gun by the post-office christened “Old Secession” belched forth in thundering celebration.  Cannons in the citadel echoed the glad tidings; houses and shops emptied their people into the streets; cares of business and family were forgotten; all faces wore smiles—­joy prevailed.  Old men ran shouting down the streets—­friend met friend in hearty hand clasp—­the sun shone brilliantly after three days of rain—­volunteers donned their uniforms and hastened to their armories.  New palmetto flags appeared everywhere.  Everyone wore a blue cockade in his hat.  Great enthusiasm was shown at the unfurling of a banner on which blocks of stone in an arch typified the fifteen Southern States.  These were surmounted by the statue of John C. Calhoun, with the Constitution in his hand, and the figures of Faith and Hope.  At the base of the arch were blocks broken in fragments representing the Northern States.  A scroll interpreted the allegory to mean a Southern Republic built from the ruins of the other half of the country.

The sentiment of the community was shared by boys firing noisy crackers and Roman candles.  The patricians of Charleston drank champagne with their dinners.  That night there were grand ceremonies, with military companies, bonfires, and glad demonstrations.  The sister states soon caught the infection, and sharing in the hope of independence, they too withdrew from the Union.

On February 4, 1861, delegates from the seceded states—­Virginia, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee, had met at Montgomery Alabama to organize the government of the Confederate States.  The President and Commander-in-chief, Jefferson Davis, was inaugurated at the State House.  Montgomery, February 18, 1861 and again at Richmond, Virginia February 22, 1862.