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The 28th of June 1851

For 75 years the 28th of June was celebrated in the City of Charleston as is the 4th of July is celebrated around the country, maybe more so. When federal troops, over 400 artillery men, were sent to Charleston to man Fort Moultrie, Castle Pickney and the half finished Fort Sumter early in 1851, the normal celebrations would not permitted by the Federal Government. The State troops and citizens were normally allowed to celebrate within the walls of Fort Moultrie, with gun salutes, dinners, and political speeches. For the first time since the beginning of these festivaties the people were barred from the property they once owned and defended. Humiliated and angry the people were allowed to celebrate in designated areas outside of Fort Moultrie. The speeches,oaths and toast (after the drinking started) against the Federal Government recorded by the Charleston Mercury that day would make Edmund Ruffin blush. After that day the originazations for calling for southern rights grew louder in Charleston, and the State writen in the articles in the Charleston Mercury well into December.

The mystery is why the sudden increase in the garrisons of those forts, where for years there had only been about 75 men? Why just Charleston? There had been a convention in Southern Secession Convention in Nashville (1850-51), but this had been a complete failure. The Administration, for what ever reason, had made a big mistake. This event sparked new interest in the secession movement and kept it alive...to its final outcome in 1860.

This one article from the period....

Harper's Magazine June-Nov. 1851.

The Governor of South Carolina has issued his proclamation for the election of representatives to the Southern Congress. He recommends the choice of two delegates from each Congressional district. The anniversary of the battle of Fort Moultrie was celebrated at and near Charleston, on the 28th of June, An address to the Moultrie Guards was delivered by Thomas M. Hanckel, Esq., in the course of whicli he declared that the only remedy for the grievances of the South " was to be found in an inflexible determination to dissolve this Union—a determination which would accept of no indemnity for the past, listen to no concessions for the present, and rely on no guarantee for the future; but which would ask and accept nothing but the sovereign right of self-government and Southern Independence." Among the toasts given wero the following : " The Compromise—A breach of faith, and a violation of the Constitution. Resistance is all that is left to freemen."—" Separate State Action—the test of patriotism."—" Our sister State, Georgia—We will take all the corn she can raise, but beg of her to keep the Cobb at home."—" Federal threats and Federal guns—The first none of us fear, the last, if pointed at us, we will take."

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David Upton

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