sured, not only without but against your orders, has dismantled one fort and occupied another, thus altering to a most important extent the condition of affairs under which we came.

Until those circumstances are explained in a manner which relieves us of all doubt as to the spirit in which these negotiations shall be conducted, we are forced to suspend all discussion as to any arrangements by which our mutual interests might be amicably adjusted.

And, in conclusion, we would urge upon you the immediate with drawl of the troops, from the harbor of Charleston. Under present circumstances they are a standing menace which renders negotiation impossible, and, as our recent experience shows, threatens speedily to bring to a bloody issue questions which ought to be settled with temperance and judgment.

We have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servants,

R. W. BARNWELL,

J. H. ADAMS,

JAMES L. ORR,

Commissioners.

[Inclosure.]

THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA:

At a Convention of the People of the State of South Carolina, begun and holden at Columbia on the seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, and thence continued by adjournment to Charleston, and there, by divers adjournments, to the twentieth of December in the same year:

AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America":

We, the People of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, to declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified and also all acts and parts of acts of the general assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the "United States of America," is hereby dissolved.

Done at Charleston the twentieth day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty.

D. F. JAMISON,

Delegate from Barnwell, and

President of the Convention, and others.

Attest:

BENJAMIN F. ARTHUR,

Clerk of the Convention.

OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE,

Charleston, S. C., December 22, 1860.

I do hereby certify that the foregoing ordinance is a true and correct copy taken from the original on file in this office.

Witness my hand and the seal of the State.

[L. S.]

ISAAC H. MEANS,

Secretary of State.