The warlike preparations in Charleston, S. C., are most active. The fire companies are being armed, and are practicing to infantry drill. On the Palmetto flag being hoisted at the "Mercury" office on Wednesday, a large crowd assembled and greeted it with vociferous cheering. An order for 10,000 bullets is being executed at a foundry in Charlotte, S. C. Gov. Gist has sent Gen. Gist on a mission of consultation to the Governors of the Southern States. The resignation of the Federal officers of the port has been noticed. On Wednesday the U. S. District Court assembled, and the Grand Jury being questioned as to whether it had presentments to make, replied as follows:
‘ The verdict of the Northern section of the Confederacy, solemnly announced to the country through the ballot-box on yesterday, has swept away the last hope for the permanence, for the stability of the Federal Government of these sovereign States; and the public mind is constrained to lift itself above the consideration of details in the administration of Law and Justice, up to the vast and solemn issues which have been forced upon us. These issues involve the existence of the Government of which this Court is the organ and minister.-- In these extraordinary circumstances, the Grand Jury respectfully decline to proceed with their presentments. They deem this explanation due to the Court and to themselves.
’ "U.S. District Court Grand Jury" The Judge of the Court, Hon. A. G. Magrath, then rose in his seat and resigned his office, saying:
‘ In the political history of the United States, an event has happened of ominous import to fifteen slaveholding States. The State of which we are citizens has been always understood to have to have deliberately fixed its purpose whenever that event should happen. Feeling an assurance of what will be the action of the State, I consider it my duty, without delay, to prepare to obey its wishes. That preparation is made by the resignation of the office I have held. For the last time I have, as a Judge of the United States, administered the laws of the United States, within the limits of the State of South Carolina. While thus acting in obedience to a sense of duty, I cannot be indifferent to the emotions it must produce. That department of Government which. I believe, has best maintained its integrity and preserved its purity, has been suspended. So far as I am concerned, the Temple of Justice, raised under the Constitution of the United States, is now closed. If it shall be never again opened, I thank God that its doors have been closed before its altar has been desecrated with sacrifices to tyranny.
May I not say to you that, in the future which we are about to penetrate, next to the reliance we should place in the goodness of that God who will guide us in the right way, should be our confidence in our State, and our obedience to its laws. We are about to sever our relations with others, because they have broken their covenant with us. Let us not break the covenant we have made with each other. Let us not forget that what the laws of our State require, become our duties. And that he who acts against the wish, or without the command of his State, usurps that sovereign authority which we must maintain inviolate.
’ The address was received with profound silence, and during its delivery many of the spectators were in tears. Jas. Connor, the U. S. District Attorney, then made a brief address also resigning his office. At night, a large crowd assembled and serenaded Judge Magrath, Mr. Connor, and the U. S. officers of the port who had resigned. John Laurens, the naval officer of the port, in a card in the papers declines resigning at this time, believing that his duty to the city forbids it. A Columbia, S. C., Wednesday night, Edmund Ruffin, of Virginia, was serenaded at the Congress House, and addressed a large gathering. A dispatch to the Courier says:
‘ He said the question now before the country he had studied for years. It had been the one great idea of his life. The defence of the South, he verily believed, was only to be secured through the lead of South Carolina. As old as he was, he had come here to join them in that lead. He wished Virginia was as ready as South Carolina; but unfortunately she was not; but circumstances being different, it was perhaps better that Virginia and all other border States remain quiescent for a time, to serve as a guard against the North.--The first drop of blood spilled upon the soil of South Carolina, would bring Virginia and every Southern State with them. By remaining in the Union for a time, she would not only prevent coercive legislation in Congress, but any attempt for our subjugation. No argument in favor of resistance was wanted now. As soon as he had performed his duty in Virginia as a citizen, he came as fast as steam could bring him to South Carolina. He was satisfied it anything was to be done, it was to be done here. He had no doubt it would be done, and the sooner the better. Every day delayed was a day lost to the cause. They should encourage and sustain their friends, and they would frighten their enemies.
There was no fear of Carolina remaining alone. She would soon be followed by other States. Virginia and half a dozen more were just as good and strong, and able to repel the enemy as if they had the whole of the slaveholding States to act with them. Even if Carolina remained alone-- not that he thought it probable, but supposing so — it was his conviction that she would be able to defend herself against any power brought against her. Multitudes spoke and said the issue was one of courage and honor, or of cowardice, desertion and degradation.
’ The following are the resolutions offered in the South Carolina House of Delegates, the consideration of which was commenced on Thursday:
‘ Resolved, That the Committee on the Military of the Senate and House of Representatives, be instructed to meet during the recess, and to prepare a plan for arming the State and for organizing a permanent Military Bureau; and that the said committee be instructed to report by bill to their respective Houses on the first day of the re-assembling of the General Assembly.
Resolved, That the Committee of Ways and Means of the House of Representatives be instructed to sit during the recess and prepare a bill for raising supplies necessary to carry into effect the measure recommended by the Military Committee, and to report by bill on the first day of the re-assembling of the General Assembly.
Resolved, That the Governor be requested immediately to apply the one hundred thousand dollars appropriated by the last General Assembly, to the purchase of arms.
Resolved, That immediately after the election of the Commissioner to the State of Georgia, this General Assembly do take a recess until the third Monday, being the 19th of November, instant, at 7 o'clock.
Resolved, As the sense of this General Assembly, that the election of a Black Republican to the Presidency of the United States, will be the triumph and practical application of principles incompatible with the peace and safety of the Southern States.
Resolved, That a Commissioner be elected, by joint ballot of the Senate and House of Representatives, whose duty it shall be in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election, to proceed immediately to Milledgeville, the seat of Government of the State of Georgia, whose Legislature will then be in session, to announce to the government of that State that South Carolina, in view of the impending danger, will immediately put herself in a state of efficient military defence and will cordially co-operate with the State of Georgia in measures for the protection of Southern interest, and to express the readiness of this State to co-operate with the State of Georgia in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election in withdrawing at once from the Confederacy, and to recommend the calling of a Convention simultaneously in both States to carry this measure into effect, and to invite the co-operation of all the Southern States in withdrawing from the present Union, and forming a separate Southern Confederacy.
’ The resolution offered in the Senate provides for election of members to a Senate provides for election of members to a State Convention on the 22d instant--the Convention to meet on the 17th of December. This body is to be continued by adjournments from time to time, as may be necessary, unless sooner dissolved by their own authority. It shall cease and be discontinued in two years from the day on which it assembled. The Charleston Mercury publishes the following suggestion for the flag of the "Southern Confederacy :"
‘ The ground entirely blue, with a golden Palmetto in the centre; a golden rattlesnake twining round the stem of the Palmetto, with its rattle sprung, head erect, and tongue protruded. In the background, to the rear of the tree and snake, a golden spread eagle, and a single golden star in the upper right corner, with the words "Room for More" on the opposite.
’
