Declaration Of Immediate Cause Analysis

The secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860, by a vote of 169-0 was a response to the election of Abraham Lincoln of 1860. Lincoln perceived as an abolitionist wanted to contain slavery rather than ending it. The majority party above the Mason-Dixon line were Republicans and below were primarily Democrats and Republicans were viewed as abolitionists. The election of a Republican threatened the South’s status quo. The primary catalyst for secession was based on slavery. Different social cultures and political beliefs developed due to the South’s intimate and reliant relationship on slavery. Southern whites feared the end of slavery and this paranoia was shared among plantation slave owners and white Yeoman farmers. Southern whites felt that the North were threatening the supposed tranquility of the South. The South’s agrarian economy, honor, and independence were believed to be in danger. Slavery was intertwined with the South’s social, cultural, and economic makeup. As a result of slavery, the South developed a paternalistic culture and racial ideology of white supremacy. The perceived notion that the North was influencing it’s political and social beliefs on the South lead them to believe that secession was the only act of self-preservation. The growing differences between the South and North made it difficult to negotiate. This fear was exaggerated and accelerated the South’s eventual implosion. The South believed that without slavery it would self-destruct and

The constitution details, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators from each state…and each senator shall have one vote.” This equal representation along with careful maintenance of regional balance in the Senate allowed for Southern states to retain their national veto over slavery. Lastly, the constitution’s allowance for the establishment of the Supreme Court that could, with a single decision, overturn years worth of legislation provided a monumental setback. In the court case Dred Scott v. Sandford, the court ruled that the federal government did not retain the power to prevent slavery in the territories. Although slavery was eventually abolished by the fourteenth amendment, the long struggle and numerous constitutional roadblocks demonstrate how a number of provisions within the constitution hindered the ability of the national government to efficiently overcome a national concern.

The controversy over slaves ultimately led to the secession. Abraham Lincoln thinks slavery is wrong and he wants to stop it from spreading. Earlier, he had warned that slavery could separate a nation. In the 1860 election Lincoln is elected, but southerners are worried he will end slavery forever. Southern states start to secede because they are worried. First South Carolina succeeds, then North, Texas, and then Florida too. They give themselves a new name called the Confederate States of America. (Wise...)

Charles B. Dew's Apostles of Disunion delves into the controversial topic of the causes of the Civil War and the secession of the states that eventually became the Confederate States of America. There are many accounts that point to defending states' rights as the primary cause of the Civil War. However, most people believe that slavery was the main and primary concern the deep South cited for seceding from the Union to form their own separate country focused on individual liberty and the progression of slavery in those states. Dew makes the point that searching for the cause for the Civil War is a search that continues to be debated

The second document the speech to Georgia from Mississippi Secession Commissioner charges the North with disregard for the constitution based on Article 1 sec 2&9, Article 4 section 2 and therefore being hostile and an enemy to the South. They further charge the Black Republican rule, of breaking and overturning the Constitution of the United States. These charges are based on the North’s

Then on December twentieth, 1860 South Carolina, after a special state assembly, declared that the state would secede from the union. In January to June nine other states joined them; Mississippi

This shows that South Carolina had the right to secede because it was a sovereign state. It also shows how the South should have had the right to decide whether they would want to secede from the country or not. Another example is that when the Southern states joined the Union, it was voluntarily (Appleby et.al 556). “Nowhere in the Constitution is there any mention of the union of the states being permanent.” (http:/civilwar.bluegrass.net). This shows that they should have the right to leave the Union if they choose to. They had this right because the South had no bind with the Union stating that they had to stay except for the United States constitution in which the North had already violated. Even though the United States constitution was what they looked at as a contract, the Union already desecrated its’ terms before this dispute. It also shows how the right was their own and the government could not control their choices in staying or not. These reasons and examples show how the South had to right to secede because of various reasons regarding the political state the government was in.

South Carolina was upset about the tariff so when Congress increased the tariff in 1828,Calhoun published the South Carolina Exposition and Protest. This exposition introduced the idea of state’s nullification of laws and took ideas of nullification from Jefferson’s Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. Later in 1832 when Congress increased the tariff higher again, South Carolina called for nullification of the tariffs of 1828-1832 by declaring them null and void. Based on Calhoun’s nullification theory Congress could either repeal the law or modify it by making an amendment to make the law constitutional. If the amendment was accepted, the state would either have to abide by the new law or secede.

Andrew Jackson issued the Proclamation to the people of South Carolina that disputed the states’ rights to nullify a federal law. The Proclamation was written in response to an Ordinance issued by the South Carolina convention that declared that the tariff act

Hardly more than a month following Lincoln's victory came declarations of secession by South Carolina and other states, which were rejected as illegal by outgoing President James Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln.

Immediately after confirmation of the election of Abraham Lincoln as president, the legislature of South Carolina convened. In a unanimous vote on December 20, 1860, the state seceded from the Union. During the next two months ordinances of secession were adopted by the states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

South Carolina retaliated against this insulting lack of concern for their voice in U.S. government. South Carolina then opted to act upon the Doctrine of Nullification and they threatened to break away from the union.2 Within this doctrine, South Carolina would preserve the right to null and void a law if they felt it was unconstitutional. South

South Carolina and the other southern states to follow, announced their intentions to leave the Union. They believed that since they voluntarily joined the Union, they could voluntarily withdraw as well.[7] During Lincoln’s attempt to stop the secession, more southern states joined the Confederates, and thus due to, but not only to these political factors, the civil war was slowly induced.

South Carolina also accused the Northern states of instigating “a war [that would] be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States,” (South Carolina) through the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. In Georgia’s declaration of secession, the reasons for secession are cited as “numerous and serious causes of complaint” (Georgia) against the non-slave holding states that were centered on “the subject of African slavery” (Georgia). In Mississippi, the consensus in the same; Mississippi’s position in the issue “[was] thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery” (Mississippi) and goes to list many reasons pertaining to slavery for its secession, most notably 1) The North “has made combinations and formed associations to carry out its schemes of emancipation” (Mississippi), 2) “has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every free State in the Union” (Mississippi), and 3) “advocates negro equality” (Mississippi). For these as well as other reasons all pertaining to slavery, the Confederate States seceded from the Union. In the Southern States, as seen through the declarations of secession from the Confederate States, the people, along with the governments of those states all supported secession based on issues arising from the conflict over slavery.

The North had full control over the federal government and used that to suppress the Southern states by creating laws that only benefitted the North. The South felt the corrupt government was unfair and they threatened to secede if nothing was done about it. In The South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification it is stated, “…we