PRO-SLAVERY GOVERNOR SC SENATOR SIGNED ORDINANCE SECESSION GIST DOCUMENT SIGNED!

Description

WILLIAM HENRY GIST
Pro-Slavery Leader of the Secession Movement in Ante-bellum South Carolina
(1807 - 1874)
68th GOVERNOR OF SOUTH CAROLINA ON THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 1858-1860,
43
rd
LT. GOVERNOR OF SC 1848-1850,
DEMOCRATIC PARTY STATE SENATOR FROM UNION COUNTY, SC 1844-1856
&
MEMBER OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FROM UNION DISTRICT 1840-1844.
On December 10, 1858, the South Carolina General Assembly elected Gist for Governor by secret ballot.
October 5, 1860 – Governor Gist notified the other southern states that South Carolina was strongly considering secession.
On December 20, 1860 – Gist signed the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession that launched the Confederacy.
Governor Gist then left office the same day the Secession Convention met to consider the question of secession following Lincoln's election as President of the United States
!
The Civil War would begin less than 4 months later.
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HERE’S AN OFFICIAL DOCUMENT SIGNED BY GIST AS GOVERNOR APPOINTING A. LEWIS BISHOP AS A COMMISSIONER OF DEEDS IN THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1p., DATED AT COLUMBIA, SC, DEC. 24, 1859.
THE DOCUMENT IS ALSO SIGNED BY THE ACTING/DEPUTY “
H
E
R
O” SECRETARY OF STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA,
WILLIAM R. HUNTT
(1833 - 1869)
William Richardson Huntt
was South Carolina’s Secretary of State when the Civil War broke out, and anticipating that Union General William T. Sherman’s troops would burn and pillage the state capital at Columbia, he gathered up 90 boxes of important South Carolinian documents and artifacts, including the Ordinance of Secession and the state seal, and evaded Union troops from capturing them until the end of the war!
In 1865 Sherman's troops took Columbia. William H. Gist and his wife, Mary A. (Wells) Huntt, (1838 – 1903), were detained and questioned at the hotel where they were staying. Mary had sewn the Ordinance of Secession into the hem of her skirt and concealed the State Seal by sitting on it during the investigation thus, saving the artifacts for South Carolina.
The document measures 16” x 10” and is in
Very Fine+
C
ondition.
A
RARE
& FINE Addition to your 19
th
Century Antebellum and Civil War Era South Carolina Political History Autograph, Manuscript & Ephemera Collection!
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BIOGRAPHY OF THE HONORABLE
WILLIAM H. GIST
William Henry Gist
(August 22, 1807 – September 30, 1874) was the
68th
Governor
of
South Carolina
from 1858 to 1860 and a leader of the
secession movement
in South Carolina. He was one of the signers of the Ordinance of Secession on December 20, 1860, which effectively launched the Confederacy.
Early life and career
Born in
Charleston, South Carolina
, on August 22, 1807, Gist was the
illegitimate
child of
merchant
Francis Fincher Gist and Mary Boyden. He moved with his father to
Union County, South Carolina
, in 1811 and came under the
guardianship
of his uncle, Nathaniel Gist, upon the death of his father in 1819. His uncle legally obtained the Gist last name for William Henry and sent him to Columbia to study law at South Carolina College (which became the
University of South Carolina
after the Civil War ended). Gist was expelled in 1827 because he had led a boycott of Steward's Hall due to the living restrictions imposed by the trustees of the college.
Nevertheless, Gist passed the
bar examination
and returned to
Union
to build
Rose Hill Plantation
on the land that his father had left him. Bricks were made on-site to construct the
2
+
1
⁄
2
-story
Georgian style
mansion, and it took four years to complete. He successfully managed the plantation, and it steadily grew in size and importance. Twice, Gist ran into difficulties with the law for alleged involvement in duels, but both times escaped without punishment.
Political career
Gist won election to the
South Carolina House of Representatives
in 1840 as a strong supporter of states' rights to chattel slavery, and he was elected to the
South Carolina Senate
in 1844. He served three terms in the SC state Senate before being elected by the
General Assembly
as the
68th Governor
of South Carolina. Gist's home at
Rose Hill Plantation
served as the Governor's Mansion during his term as governor.
Gist was bitterly opposed to the
presidential candidacy
of
Abraham Lincoln
in November 1860, and Gist had discussed with governors of other
Southern states
what course of action they would take if Lincoln were elected. Gist believed that because the United States of America was created through a compact among sovereign states, the states retained their sovereign powers and could leave the Union if the federal government failed to protect their rights and privileges. Receiving assurances from the governors of Florida and
Mississippi
that they would follow South Carolina's lead, Gist called for a
secession convention
to be held in
Columbia
on December 17, 1860. The convention was moved to
Charleston
because of a
smallpox
outbreak in Columbia, and Gist was one of the signers of the
Ordinance of Secession
on December 20, 1860. Florida and Mississippi signed their own
Ordinance of Secession
in January 1861.
The creation of the South Carolina Executive Council in 1861 provided Gist with an opportunity to participate in the state's wartime activities of the
Civil War
. He was in charge of the Department of Treasury and Finance and later the Department of Construction and Manufactures, but the dissolution of the South Carolina Executive Council in September 1862 ended his involvement in the politics of the state.
Gist had two sons who fought for the Confederacy the youngest being David Christopher Gist. His eldest son William was killed by a Union sharpshooter outside of
Chattanooga, Tennessee
in 1863. Gist was the cousin of
States Rights Gist
, a Confederate brigadier general who died leading a charge at the
Battle of Franklin, Tennessee
, in 1864.
Later life
After the Civil War ended in 1865, Gist took an
oath of allegiance
in
Greenville, South Carolina
, and received a
pardon
from President
Andrew Johnson
. He returned to
Rose Hill Plantation
, which had survived the Civil War and
Sherman's March to the Sea
because the Broad River was in flood stages and the Union troops could not get through. Gist remained at Rose Hill and rented out the land to
sharecroppers
. He hated the Reconstruction government that was in power from 1868 until the time of his death. He developed
appendicitis
and died on September 30, 1874. Gist is buried in the family plot near the mansion.
I am a proud member of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club (UACC), The Ephemera Society of America, the Manuscript Society and the American Political Items Collectors (APIC) (member name: John Lissandrello). I subscribe to each organizations' code of ethics and authenticity is guaranteed. ~Providing quality service and historical memorabilia online for over 20 years.~
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