The Union press answered that the new departure meant simply that the people had resolved no longer to be insulted at every recurrence of the Fourth of July by orations and toasts violative of every national and historic principle. On the last two anniversaries of Independence Day, they declared, the nullification orators had poured out expressions of their hatred for the Union party, and their toasts and speeches had teemed with the most rancorous abuse. The supporters of the Union party had simply determined that they would no longer be abused to their faces and that Carolina was no longer to be thus misrepresented.[1]'
As the day of celebration approached, party spirit ran so high that there was talk of the possibility of July 4 being a bloody day; but such idle talk was confined mainly to the Mercury.[2] Adherents of the State Rights party, not to be outdone, made as extensive preparations as their opponents, and invited all the societies and volunteer corps of the city to celebrate with them. The three leading societies of the city were the Revolutionary, Cincinnati, and '76 societies. The State Rights party had gained control of the
