On this day, December 20, in the year 1860, exactly 150 years ago, South Carolina became the first state to vote ordinances of secession and break away from the Union, after many years of such threats going back to 1832-1833 during the Nullification Crisis over the protective tariff during the administration of Andrew Jackson!
Hard to believe, but South Carolina is tonight “celebrating” that anniversary with a reading of the secession ordinance, a party and dance and banquet, as if this is an honorable moment in history to commemorate! 🙁
It is one thing to honor the dead of the Confederate side of the Civil War, and to promote the history of the Confederacy, as in the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.
But it is NOT a time to celebrate or glorify the treason of the South which was out to destroy the Union, and to keep African Americans in slavery for all time! 🙁
This is unfortunate proof of the reality that the old scars of the Civil War remain much too fresh and unhealed, and that we have a long way to go before we can say that this nation is “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all!”