To Small to be a Republic; Too Large to be an Insane Asylum

South Carolina had been questioning the authority of the U.S. Government since the 1830s. So talk of secession was nothing new in 1860. Former Vice President John C. Calhoun had even offered a proposal years earlier that there be two presidents of the United States - one hailing from the north and one from the south - in hopes of keeping the country together. But he also predicted that the union would eventually be disolved. Finally, in December, 1860, the state of South Carolina severed itself from the United States and briefly became a republic, or a sovereign nation. One Charleston opponent of the decision uttered the words, "South Carolina is too small to be a republic and too large to be an insane asylum," when he was told of the action. Over the next two months, six other southern states also left the union and formed a coalition, or a confederacy, with one another. The Confederate States of America was born on February 8, 1861. Two months later, the war began.