Thanksgiving: Charleston 1860

From The New-York Times. November 22, 1860:

CHARLESTON, Wednesday, Nov. 21.

Thanksgiving passed off with remarkable quietness. The American Sunday School Union this morning unfurled a white banner, with a palmetto tree, five stars and an open Bible, and the mottoes: “South Carolina dares resist oppression,” and “In the name of our God we set up our banner.”

The Georgia merchants are promptly meeting their Charleston liabilities.

Congressman KEITT, on board the steamship Columbia this afternoon, was presented with a gutta-percha rifle-cane. He spoke feelingly of BROOKS.

The suspension of the Richmond Banks will not effect business here.

Notes

1) The Sunday-Schoolers were no doubt being taught to stand up for “God and Country”. This news item seems to be another indication that even 70 years after the U.S. Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederacy, South Carolinians still tended to think of their country as South Carolina.

Laurence M. Keitt

2) Congressman Laurence M. Keitt helped fellow South Carolinian Preston Brooks attack Senator Charles Sumner in the U.S. Senate chamber on May 22, 1856. Keitt told Brooks that a duel between Sumner and Brooks would not be appropriate because Sumner was of a lower social class than Brooks. Brooks decided to beat Sumner senseless with a Gutta-percha cane. Keitt brandished a pistol to keep would-be Good Samaritans from intervening.

3) Gutta-percha is a type of tree in Southeast Asia. The sap of the tree had many purposes. It was used as an insulator for undersea cables in the 19th century because marine animals did not mess with it. Keitt received the cane that also could double as a rifle. The Remington Cane Rifle used Gutta-percha to cover the cane body.

J.L. Magee's political cartoon of Brooks attacking Sumner

Preston Brooks

4) States celebrated Thanksgiving Day on different dates in 1860. South Carolina apparently had theirs on November 21. There’s evidence that several northern states were opting for November 29.

5) More evidence of the uncertain financial situation caused by the uncertain political situation.