of the
United States District Court had refused to make any presentments,
because of the Presidential vote just cast, which, they said, had "swept
away the last hope for the permanence, for the stability, of the Federal
Government of these Sovereign States;" and that United States District
Judge Magrath had resigned his office, saying to the Grand Jury, as he
did so: "In the political history of the United States, an event has
happened of ominous import to fifteen Slave-holding States. The State
of which we are citizens has been always understood to have deliberately
fixed its purpose whenever that event should happen. Feeling an
assurance of what will be the action of the State, I consider it my
duty, without delay, to prepare to obey its wishes. That preparation is
made by the resignation of the office I have held."

The news of the resignations of the Federal Collector and District
Attorney at Charleston, followed, with an intimation that that of the
Sub-Treasurer would soon be forthcoming. On November 9th, a joint
resolution calling an unconditional Secession Convention to meet at
Columbia December 17th, was passed by the Senate, and on the 12th of
November went through the House; and both of the United States Senators
from South Carolina had now resigned their seats in the United States
Senate.

Besides all these and many other incitements to Secession was the fact
that at Milledgeville, Georgia, Governor Brown had, November 12th,
addressed a Georgian Military Convention, affirming "the right of
Secession, and the duty of other Southern States to sustain South
Carolina in the step she was then taking," and declaring that he "would
like to see Federal troops dare attempt the coercion of a seceding
Southern State! For every Georgian who fell in a conflict thus incited,
the lives of two Federal Soldiers should expiate the outrage on State
Sovereignty"--and that the Convention aforesaid had most decisively
given its voice for Secession.

It was about this time, however, that Alexander H. Stephens vainly
sought to stem the tide of Secession in his own State, in a speech
(November 14) before the Georgia Legislature, in which he declared that
Mr. Lincoln "can do nothing unless he is backed by power in Congress.
The House of Representatives is largely in the majority against him. In
the Senate he will also be powerless. There will be a majority of four
against him." He also cogently said: "Many of us have sworn