150-Year Anniversary ยท December 1860
On December 20, 1860, a convention in Charleston voted unanimously to dissolve South Carolina's bonds with the United States. It was the first state to secede, and its declaration cited the northern states' hostility to slavery as the central grievance.
President James Buchanan, a lame duck until March, declared secession illegal yet insisted he had no constitutional power to coerce a state back into the Union. His inaction left federal authority adrift during the gravest hour the republic had yet faced.
On the night of December 26, Major Robert Anderson quietly shifted his small garrison from the indefensible Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. The move enraged South Carolina and set the stage for the confrontation that would open the war four months later.
Buchanan's last December left the Union unresolved. The war that followed is introduced on the American Civil War overview.