The Union Is Dissolved!
December 17th, 2009Filed under: Exhibitions
Of all the millions of artifacts held by the Chicago History Museum, I find this broadside to be one of the most compelling. It was published by the Charleston Mercury on December 20, 1860, to announce that South Carolina had seceded from the Union.
Secessionist leaders were responding to Abraham Lincoln’s recent election to the presidency (November 6, 1860). Like many Southerners, they feared that Lincoln would act against slavery within their state borders, despite his oft-repeated claims that he had no intention of doing so.
To make their point, secessionist leaders boldly mailed a copy of this broadside to the president-elect in Springfield. When the ominous message arrived, Lincoln tried to reassure his distraught eldest son, Robert, that it must have been intended as a Christmas gift and filed it away.
Over the next few weeks, six more states followed South Carolina’s lead. By the time Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861, they had formed the Confederate States of America, and four more states would join them after the attack on Fort Sumter. For his part, Lincoln never recognized the legality of secession, but took South Carolina’s decree with him to Washington and retained it in his files for the rest of his life.
> View the broadside in detail on the Lincoln@200 website
The broadside is one of the many artifacts featured in Abraham Lincoln Transformed, an exhibition that examines the fundamental change in his views about slavery and the Union that changed America. The exhibition runs through April 12, 2010.
> Learn more about Abraham Lincoln Transformed
