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OBJECT OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA CONVENTION. – It has been generally supposed that the object of the State Convention of South Carolina was to deliberate on the question of secession, and take such action as it might, after full examination, deem advisable. The Charleston Mercury corrects this misapprehension. It says:
“The secession of South Carolina in the shortest time practicable after the meeting of the Convention is a point settled. Such was the understanding of the members of the Legislature in voting the Convention, and such, unquestionably, is the will of the people. In this matter the Convention meets, practically, not to deliberate, but to act. It will but register an edict which the real, actual people will have pronounced already through the ballot-box.”
As the issue is not permitted to be made, it is not very easy to see how it can be decided, at the ballot-box. The “edict” has gone forth from the self-appointed dictators of the State, that South Carolina must secede: - and the delegates chosen by the people, and supposed to represent the people, have nothing to do but to “register the edict,” which was pronounced by the secession leaders in advance of the election.
