The South Carolina Convention on secession met for the first time in Columbia, South Carolina on the morning of December 17, 1860 in the Baptist Church. David F. Jamison was elected to the chair. Delegates, it was observed, were mostly elderly and distinguished men, including five former governors of the state, four former U.S. senators, a former speaker of the U.S. House, leading clergy, and many federal and state judges, including John Inglis, a native of Maryland, class of 1829 at Dickinson College. (By John Osborne)