A massive meeting estimated at around fifty thousand people assembled in Independence Square in Philadelphia two days before.  The gathering passed a number of resolutions that declared Philadelphians for the Union but also demanded that conciliation with the South take place, especially in the areas of rhetoric attacking slavery and the enforcement of the federal Fugitive Slave Law.  The City Council deputized Mayor Henry to forward a full report on the meeting to the South Carolina government.  (By John Osborne)

A massive meeting estimated at around fifty thousand people assembled in Independence Square in Philadelphia.  The City Council had authorized and sanctioned the gathering and the courts, the Naval Yard, and many surrounding businesses were closed for the day.  Mayor Alexander Henry chaired the meeting that passed a number of resolutions that declared Philadelphians for the Union but also demanded that conciliation with the South take place, especially in the areas of rhetoric attacking slavery and the enforcement of the federal Fugitive Slave Law.  (By John Osborne)

The South Carolina Convention met for the first time in Columbia, South Carolina on the morning of December 17, 1860.  By that evening, managers decided to leave Columbia due to an outbreak of smallpox in the city and reassemble in Charleston.  The Convention reconvened at 4 o'clock the next afternoon briefly in the South Carolina Institute and then moved to St. Andrew's Hall to resume the business of secession. (By John Osborne) 

From Springfield, Abraham Lincoln wrote to William Henry Seward telling him that he intended to nominate him as Secretary of State in his new cabinet.  He noted that he had intended to do so since the day of his nomination in Chicago. Seward replied asking for time to consider on December 13, 1860 and formally accepted Lincoln's invitation on December 28, 1860. Seward served at State until March 1869.  (By John Osborne)