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In this brief letter to Secession Convention President David F. Jamison, South Carolina Governor Francis W. Pickens asked for an official notification of the passage of a secession ordinance so that he could announce to the world that “we are a free & independent Republic.”

FRANCIS W. PICKENS. Manuscript Letter Signed, to David F. Jamison, December 22, 1860, [Columbia, SC]. 1 p., 7½ x 9¾ in. #27722 [with] DAVID F. JAMISON, Manuscript Letter Signed, to Francis W. Pickens, December 25, 1860, [Charleston, SC]. 1 p., 5 x 8 in. #27722.01

Inventory #27722       Price: $20,000

Complete Transcript Pickens to Jameson
                                                Executive Department / Decr. 22, 1860

To       Jamison / President of the Convention

Sir, / I have received from the convention as yet no official notification of the passage of the Ordinance. I would most respectfully suggest that such notice be given in order that I may issue a proclamation announcing the fact to the world that we are a free & independent Republic—and as such, authorized to negociate treaties, & do all other acts that appertain to a free and Independent Republic.

                                                I have the Honor to be / Very respectfully / yr. ob. Servant

                                                                        F. W. Pickens

To Genl. D Jamison

Complete Transcript Jameson to Pickens
                                                                        St Andrews Hall, / December 25, 1860

To His Excellency / F. W. Pickens

Sir, / I have the honor to transmit herewith, a copy of a Resolution, adopted in Convention, this day.

                                                Very Respectfully / Your Obt servt

                                                                        D. F. Jamison / Prest: of Convention

Over the next two years, Jamison became one of Governor Pickens’s chief critics.

Historical Background
On November 10, 1860, the South Carolina General Assembly called for a convention of the people of the state to draw up an ordinance of secession. After moving to Charleston to escape a smallpox epidemic at the state capitol, Columbia, on December 20, the Convention adopted the Secession Ordinance by a vote of 169 to 0.

In addition to the Secession Ordinance, on December 24 the convention adopted two other major statements. A “Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina” justified secession based on the compact theory of the Union and, of course, the desire to defend slavery: “For twenty-five years this [antislavery] agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. Observing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that Article establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of the President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery.” Some members feared such a frank statement might not evoke sympathy from other nations, but an effort to send it back to the committee failed by a vote of 124 to 31.[1]

The second was an “Address” of the people of South Carolina to the people of the other slaveholding states asserted that “the North’s blatant violation of the Constitution” was “the one great evil, from which all other evils have flowed.” It insisted that the Constitutional experiment begun in 1787 had “failed” to unite two very different peoples. It boldly declared, “All we demand of other peoples is, to be let alone, to work out our high destinies.”[2]

On December 25, under this cover letter, South Carolina Secession Convention President David F. Jamison conveyed to Governor Francis W. Pickens a resolution of the Convention (no longer present) asking the governor to send the Conventions three major messages to other southern governors.

Francis W. Pickens (1807-1869) was born in South Carolina as the son of former Governor Andrew Pickens. He was educated at Franklin College (University of Georgia) and South Carolina College and obtained admission to the bar in 1829. He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives as a Democrat from 1832 to 1834 and supported nullification. He represented South Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1834 to 1843 and served in the South Carolina Senate from 1844 to 1846. He served as Minister to Russia from 1858 to 1860. He returned to the United States and was elected Governor of South Carolina, a position he held from 1860 to 1862. During his administration, the state seceded, and Pickens demanded the surrender of federal forts in Charleston harbor. He approved the bombardment of Fort Sumter that began the Civil War. As a delegate to the South Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1865, he introduced a motion to repeal the state’s ordinance of secession.

David Flavel Jamison (1810-1864) was born in South Carolina and became an attorney and planter. He represented the Barnwell District in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1836 to 1848. In December 1860, he was elected as president of the South Carolina Secession Convention. He later served as Secretary of War for the state of South Carolina. He died of yellow fever in September 1864 in Charleston, South Carolina.

Condition of Pickens letter: Creased along folds; offsetting and staining, slightly affecting text; minor staining on verso. Condition of Jameson letter: Creased along folds; toned at the left margin; minor paper loss to the top margin.