John Barnwell

Love of Order: South Carolina's First Secession Crisis John Barnwell

Love of Order chronicles South Carolina's road to disunion in response to the sectional crisis precipitated by the acquistion of vast new territories following the Mexican War. Politicians seeking to avoid civil war intended and hoped that the Compromise of 185O would settle the outstanding grievances of both North and South. But South Carolina rejected the Compromise as inadequate to preserve slavery and slave society. The planter-politicians of South Carolina tried to organize a secession movement. However, they soon fell out among themselves over whether the state should secede by itself if they could not presuade other states to join them. The bitter struggle between these factions -- the separate secessionists and the co-operationists -- was narrowly won by the co-operationists. Their victory postponed disunion until the crisis precipitated by Lincoln's election, when South Carolina was the first to secede.