SC calls a Convention to consider secession

• The South Carolina General Assembly calls a convention of the People of South Carolina to meet at noon on December 17, 1860, for the purpose of considering Secession from the union/1860

James Chestnut

• US Senator from South Carolina James Chestnut (D-SC) becomes the first Southern politician to resign his seat. He would become a Confederate general, and his wife, Mary Boykin Chestnut, would be the author of the famous Diary from Dixie./1860