Declaration of the Causes of Secessions

According to this document, what action had 14 states undertaken that violated the Constitution?
What is the property described in this document?
Does this document help us to address the question of whether the Civil War was fought over
slavery? If so, how?

On December 24
th
, 1860 South Carolina announced their secession from the United States
withDeclaration of the Causes of Secessions (Links to an external site.). This historic document
established both South Carolinas legal justification, as well as its reasons for separating from the United
States.
The first half of the document establishes a legal right to secede. It begins by giving a history of the
formation of the United States with emphasis on the states being independent collaborators. First it
mentions that the Declaration of Independence was primarily about the self-governing of free and
independent states. This is used to establish a precedent for the rights of the states to govern
themselves. It also lists the treaty with Great Britain in 1783 as an example that England recognized the
states as separate sovereign independent states and not as one country. South Carolina is claiming
inherent rights to self-government, and its right to abolish government that becomes destructive to its own
purpose. The document discusses the constitution and cites that it was only upheld and ratified by States
on an independent basis, that is to say it would only apply to those states that agreed to it. This is an
important point because it suggests that since states had the choice of ratifying the constitution and
joining the union they should also have the choice of rejecting the constitution and leaving it. The
document then says that each state restrained its own power voluntarily to comply with the constitution
and this restraint of power was proof that the states were still sovereign. The document now having
established its legal right to secede continues by giving its reasons for doing so.
South Carolina views the constitution of the United States as a compact, or contract and feels that most
of the northern states are not honoring several of its provisions. Primarily cited is the fourth article which
states: No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another,
shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall
be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. This is referring to the
enforcement of the fugitive slave law. South Carolina is citing the lack of its enforcement and claiming the
northern states are not only ignoring this law but willfully blocking this laws enforcement. Another primary
reason is that the central government itself is growing hostile in regards to the position of slavery and
references Abraham Lincolns election as a sign of this. Because of this shift in government South
Carolina feels that it no longer can trust the constitution to uphold its rights of self-government and will be
unable to protect itself from the federal government which necessitates its separation from the United
States.
The secession of South Carolina despite all their listed justifications amounts to little more than child
throwing a tantrum. This of course refers to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President. The election of
Lincoln is referred to in the document and more importantly the timing of its drafting implies this. This
document was drafted after the election but before the inauguration of President Lincoln. There were
even allegations in the document that the election was unfairly influenced by the immigrant vote. South
Carolina would likely not have seceded had John C. Breinridge, or even Stephen A. Douglas won office,
which were more sympathetic to the south.

There seem numerous contradictions in both their legal and moral justifications for secession. The first
document referenced is the Declaration of Independence. While South Carolina uses this to establish the
ability and right of a state to separate from its mother country it fails to acknowledge the reason for the
Declaration of Independence in the first place. The original colonies seceded from England primarily
because they were not being represented in English Parliament. This was not the case for South Carolina
or the rest of the south. They had representation and often times had a majority of representation in
various branches of government. Since the birth of the republic, southerners had either sat in the White
House or influenced those who did (Brands p353). It then cites Great Britains treaty which acknowledges
the States as Independent and sovereign. This would be a highly convenient stance to take as Great
Britain was an enemy of the colonies and would have no interest in acknowledging the states as one
separate country rather than a group of individual territories for them to exploit.
The best argument that South Carolina had was in regards to the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave laws
in which fugitive slaves are to be delivered back to their rightful owners. Even though this appears to be a
valid point the constitution does not go into detail on how this is accomplished whether it is up to the
Federal government or State government to enforce this law. Further by citing Section 2, Article IV of the
Constitution they then fail to acknowledge Section 3 which would seem to dispute their right to secede in
the first place. Section 3 which is the very next part of Article IV: New states may be admitted by the
Congress into this union; but no new state shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other
state, nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, without consent of the legislatures of
the states concerned as well as of the Congress. This is to say that states cannot join the union or
combine or form additional states without the approval of Congress. If states are not allowed to form or
combine without congress approval it can be implied that they are only allowed to secede with congress
approval as well.
The primary justification for South Carolina to secede was the incompatible leadership of President
Lincoln. There is no reason for me to point out the contradictions of this argument when Lincoln himself
does such a masterful job in his First Inaugural Address (Links to an external site.). He basically states
that he does not have the authority or the desire to abolish slavery in the states where it is already
established. He said that his constituency was fully aware of his stance before election and he is
dedicated to upholding that stance. This directly responds to the fear that the government will not uphold
the rights of slave states such as South Carolina.
This document shows that slavery was the primary reason for South Carolina, and other southern states
to leave the union. If slavery was not crucial to the southern way of life then there would be no need or
justification for secession. It is safe to say the institution of slavery was the indirect cause of the civil war. I
say indirectly because the north fought primarily to keep the union together not to abolish slavery. There
were no plans initially to abolish slavery where it already existed and even the Emancipation
Proclamation did not initially free any slaves. It did not extend to slave states loyal to the Union or to
occupied areas and thus did not immediately free a single slave (Brands p373). The Confederacys
reasons for war were much more related to slavery, or specifically the preservation of slavery. This
document even cited its reasons for leaving as a response to an anti-slavery administration and directly
quoting Lincoln as evidence. On the 4th day of March next, this party will take possession of the
Government. It has announced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory, that the
judicial tribunals shall be made sectional, and that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall
cease throughout the United States. Even though none of these allegations proved true it shows South
Carolina as taking a preemptive stance and is expecting a war to ensue. So while slavery was not the
specific reason for the civil war, the defense of it was its primary cause.