Download support your response, making certain that all of the sources are

 The Challenge of Secession Document Based Question Read and interpret the documents included within this packet, summarizing the views presented and articulated both in favor and against secession in the form of a T chart. Use textual evidence to
support your response, making certain that all of the sources are used in your chart. Remember
that, when interpreting political cartoons, you must identify the literal representation before
investigating the figurative (symbolic/metaphorical) meaning behind the cartoon. The figurative
meaning can be communicated through the use of caricatures, symbols, labels, and captions.
Since symbols are used to make connections, pay attention to precisely what symbols are used to
depict something or someone else-what features or characteristic traits are the viewers/readers
supposed to think of when they consider the symbols being used? This will help the viewer/
reader determine the cartoonist’s viewpoint (i.e. how is the figure or event being portrayed). The
use of caricatures can also be helpful in determining the cartoonist’s viewpoint (i.e. how the
historical figures are being depicted). Labels are used to identify both symbols and caricature
portrayals while captions provide additional information and clues. In addition, discuss
how/why Jefferson Davis distinguished between nullification and secession. Buchanan on Secession, 1860
James Buchanan on Secession
1860
Abraham Lincoln was not the only U.S. president to confront the crisis of secession. By
the time he took office on March 4, 1861, seven states had already seceded from the
Union. It first fell to Lincoln's predecessor, James Buchanan, to deal with the crisis.
Buchanan's views on secession and how he should handle the impending crisis are
revealed in his annual message to Congress, issued two and a half weeks before South
Carolina formally seceded. His position is one of conciliation and passivity. While
questioning the wisdom of the South's impending action, Buchanan acknowledges the long
provocation of the slave states into taking action. Defending the Union, he seems to
concede, in effect, any ability on his part as chief executive to prevent its breakup.
[December 3, 1860]
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
Throughout the year since our last meeting, the country has been eminently prosperous in all its material interests. The general
health has been excellent, our harvests have been abundant, and
plenty smiles throughout the land. Our commerce and
manufactures have been prosecuted with energy and industry, and
have yielded fair and ample returns. In short, no nation in the tide
of time has ever presented a spectacle of greater material
prosperity than we have done until within a very recent period.
Why is it, then, that discontent now so extensively prevails, and
the Union of the States, which is the source of all these blessings,
is threatened with destruction?
The long-continued and intemperate interference of the Northern
people with the question of slavery in the Southern States has at
length produced its natural effects. The different sections of the
Union are now arrayed against each other, and the time has
arrived, so much dreaded by the Father of his Country, when
hostile geographical parties have been formed....
The immediate peril arises not so much from these causes as from the fact that the incessant and violent agitation of the slavery
question throughout the North for the last quarter of a century has
at length produced its malign influence on the slaves and inspired
them with vague notions of freedom. Hence a sense of security no
longer exists around the family altar....Self-preservation is the
first law of nature, and has been implanted in the heart of man by
his Creator for the wisest purpose; and no political union,
however fraught with blessings and benefits in all other respects,
can long continue [if] the necessary consequence [is]to render the
homes and the firesides of nearly half the parties to it habitually
and hopelessly insecure. Sooner or later the bonds of such a
union must be severed. It is my conviction that this fatal period
has not yet arrived, and my prayer to God is that He would
preserve the Constitution and the Union throughout all
generations....
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Buchanan on Secession, 1860
How easy would it be for the American people to settle the
slavery question forever and to restore peace and harmony to this
distracted country! They, and they alone, can do it. All that is
necessary to accomplish the object, and all for which the slave
States have ever contended, is to be let alone and permitted to
manage their domestic institutions in their own way. As sovereign
States, they, and they alone, are responsible before God and the
world for the slavery existing among them. For this the people of
the North are not more responsible and have no more right to
interfere than with similar institutions in Russia or in Brazil.
Upon their good sense and patriotic forbearance I confess I still
greatly rely. Without their aid it is beyond the power of any
President, no matter what may be his own political proclivities, to
restore peace and harmony among the States. Wisely limited and
restrained as is his power under our Constitution and laws, he
alone can accomplish but little for good or for evil on such a
momentous question.
And this brings me to observe that the election of any one of our fellow-citizens to the office of President does not of itself afford
just cause for dissolving the Union. This is more especially true if
his election has been effected by a mere plurality, and not a
majority of the people, and has resulted from transient and
temporary causes, which may probably never again occur. In
order to justify a resort to revolutionary resistance, the Federal
Government must be guilty of "a deliberate, palpable, and
dangerous exercise" of powers not granted by the Constitution.
The late Presidential election, however, has been held in strict
conformity with its express provisions. How, then, can the result
justify a revolution to destroy this very Constitution? Reason,
justice, a regard for the Constitution, all require that we shall wait
for some overt and dangerous act on the part of the President elect
before resorting to such a remedy. It is said, however, that the
antecedents of the President elect have been sufficient to justify
the fears of the South that he will attempt to invade their
constitutional rights. But are such apprehensions of contingent
danger in the future sufficient to justify the immediate destruction
of the noblest system of government ever devised by mortals? ...
Text corresponds with:
Richardson, James D., ed. A Compilation of the Messages and
Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1897. 10 vols. Washington, D.C.:
1896–1899. vol. 5, 626 et seq.
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Jefferson Davis' Farewell Address, 1861
Jefferson Davis's Farewell Address to the U.S. Senate
1861
Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, had a
distinguished career in the service of the United States of America prior to the Civil War.
He served as secretary of war and acting secretary of the U.S. Navy in the administration
of Franklin Pierce. In 1856 Davis was elected to the U.S. Senate by the people of
Mississippi. After his native state seceded from the Union on January 9, 1861, Davis
resigned his senatorial seat. In the following farewell speech given to the Senate on
January 21, 1861, Davis explains the reasons for his resignation and defends his state's
secession from the Union. He makes a sharp distinction between the theories of
nullification and secession. He also distinguishes between the right of a government to
enforce laws within its jurisdiction and its right to make war on a foreign state.
I rise, Mr. President [president of the Senate, John C.
Breckinridge], for the purpose of announcing to the Senate that I
have satisfactory evidence that the State of Mississippi, by a
solemn ordinance of her people in convention assembled, has
declared her separation from the United States. Under these
circumstances, of course my functions are terminated here. It has
seemed to me proper, however, that I should appear in the Senate
to announce that fact to my associates, and I will say but very little
more....
It is known to Senators who have served with me here, that I have for many years advocated, as an essential attribute of State
sovereignty, the right of a State to secede from the Union.
Therefore, if I had not believed there was justifiable cause; if I had
thought that Mississippi was acting without sufficient provocation,
or without an existing necessity, I should still, under my theory of
the Government, because of my allegiance to the State of which I
am a citizen, have been bound by her action. I, however, may be
permitted to say that I do think she has justifiable cause, and I
approve of her act. I conferred with her people before that act was
taken, counseled them then that if the state of things which they
apprehended should exist when the convention met, they should
take the action which they have now adopted.
I hope none who hear me will confound this expression of mine
with the advocacy of the right of a State to remain in the Union,
and to disregard its constitutional obligations by the nullification
of the law. Such is not my theory. Nullification and secession, so
often confounded, are indeed antagonistic principles. Nullification
is a remedy which it is sought to apply within the Union, and
against the agent of the States. It is only to be justified when the
agent has violated his constitutional obligation, and a State,
assuming to judge for itself, denies the right of the agent thus to
act, and appeals to the other States of the Union for a decision; but
when the States themselves, and when the people of the States,
have so acted as to convince us that they will not regard our
constitutional rights, then, and then for the first time, arises the
doctrine of secession in its practical application.
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Jefferson Davis' Farewell Address, 1861
A great man who now reposes with his fathers, and who has been
often arraigned for a want of fealty to the Union, advocated the
doctrine of nullification, because it preserved the Union. It was
because of his deep-seated attachment to the Union, his
determination to find some remedy for existing ills short of a
severance of the ties which bound South Carolina to the other
States, that Mr. [John C.] Calhoun advocated the doctrine of
nullification, which he proclaimed to be peaceful, to be within the
limits of State power, not to disturb the Union, but only to be a
means of bringing the agent before the tribunal of the States for
their judgment.
Secession belongs to a different class of remedies. It is to be
justified upon the basis that the States are sovereign. There was a
time when none denied it. I hope the time may come again, when
a better comprehension of the theory of our Government, and the
inalienable rights of the people of the States, will prevent any one
from denying that each State is a sovereign, and thus may reclaim
the grants which it has made to any agent whomsoever.
...It is by this confounding of nullification and secession that the
name of a great man, whose ashes now mingle with his mother
earth, has been invoked to justify coercion against a seceded State.
The phrase "to execute the laws," was an expression which
General Jackson applied to the case of a State refusing to obey the
laws while yet a member of the Union. That is not the case which
is now presented. The laws are to be executed over the United
States, and upon the people of the United States. They have no
relation to any foreign country. It is a perversion of terms, at least
it is a great misapprehension of the case, which cites that
expression for application to a State which has withdrawn from
the Union. You may make war on a foreign State. If it be the
purpose of gentlemen, they may make war against a State which
has withdrawn from the Union; but there are no laws of the United
States to be executed within the limits of a seceded State. A State
finding herself in the condition in which Mississippi has judged
she is, in which her safety requires that she should provide for the
maintenance of her rights out of the Union, surrenders all the
benefits, (and they are known to be many,) deprives herself of the
advantages, (they are known to be great,) severs all the ties of
affection, (and they are close and enduring,) which have bound her
to the Union; and thus divesting herself of every benefit, taking
upon herself every burden, she claims to be exempt from any
power to execute the laws of the United States within her limits....
It has been a conviction of pressing necessity, it has been a belief
that we are to be deprived in the Union of the rights which our
fathers bequeathed to us, which has brought Mississippi into her
present decision. She has heard proclaimed the theory that all men
are created free and equal, and this made the basis of an attack
upon her social institutions; and the sacred Declaration of
Independence has been invoked to maintain the position of the
equality of the races. That Declaration of Independence is to be
construed by the circumstances and purposes for which it was
made. The communities were declaring their independence; the
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Jefferson Davis' Farewell Address, 1861
people of those communities were asserting that no man was born
—to use the language of Mr. Jefferson—booted and spurred to
ride over the rest of mankind; that men were created equal—
meaning the men of the political community; that there was no
divine right to rule; that no man inherited the right to govern; that
there were no classes by which power and place descended to
families, but that all stations were equally within the grasp of each
member of the body-politic. These were the great principles they
announced; these were the purposes for which they made their
declaration; these were the ends to which their enunciation was
directed. They have no reference to the slave; else, how happened
it that among the items of arraignment made against George III
was that he endeavored to do just what the North has been
endeavoring of late to do—to stir up insurrection among our
slaves? Had the Declaration announced that the negroes were free
and equal, how was the Prince [George III] to be arraigned for
stirring up insurrection among them?...When our Constitution was
formed, the same idea was rendered more palpable, for there we
find provision made for that very class of persons as property; they
were not put upon the footing of equality with white men—not
even upon that of paupers and convicts; but, so far as
representation was concerned, were discriminated against as a
lower caste, only to be represented in the numerical proportion of
three-fifths.
Then, Senators, we recur to the compact which binds us together; we recur to the principles upon which our Government was
founded; and when you deny them, and when you deny to us the
right to withdraw from a Government which thus perverted
threatens to be destructive of our rights, we but tread in the path of
our fathers when we proclaim our independence, and take the
hazard. This is done not in hostility to others, not to injure any
section of the country, not even for our own pecuniary benefit; but
from the high and solemn motive of defending and protecting the
rights we inherited, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit
unshorn to our children.
I find in myself, perhaps, a type of the general feeling of my
constituents towards yours. I am sure I feel no hostility to you,
Senators from the North. I am sure there is not one of you,
whatever sharp discussion there may have been between us, to
whom I cannot now say, in the presence of my God, I wish you
well; and such, I am sure, is the feeling of the people whom I
represent towards those whom you represent. I therefore feel that I
but express their desire when I say I hope, and they hope, for
peaceful relations with you, though we must part. They may be
mutually beneficial to us in the future, as they have been in the
past, if you so will it. The reverse may bring disaster on every
portion of the country; and if you will have it thus, we will invoke
the God of our fathers, who delivered them from the power of the
lion, to protect us from the ravages of the bear; and thus, putting
our trust in God and in our own firm hearts and strong arms, we
will vindicate the right as best we may.
...I have, Senators, in this hour of our parting, to offer you my
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Jefferson Davis' Farewell Address, 1861
apology for any pain which, in heat of discussion, I have inflicted.
I go hence unencumbered of the remembrance of any injury
received, and having discharged the duty of making the only
reparation in my power for any injury offered.
Mr. President, and Senators, having made the announcement
which the occasion seemed to me to require, it only remains to me
to bid you a final adieu.
Text corresponds with:
The Papers of Jefferson Davis. Jefferson Davis' Farewell Address.
http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/resources.cfm?doc_id=1507
The Papers of Jefferson Davis, vol. 7, 18–23. Transcribed from the
Congressional Globe, 36th Cong., 2d sess., 1861. 487.
Text courtesy of:
The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Rice University, Houston, Texas.
http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/
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Lincoln's Message to Congress, 1861
Abraham Lincoln, Message to Congress in Special
Session
1861
On the occasion of the nation's eighty-fifth birthday, President Lincoln sent Congress a
status report on the national crisis. Since the surrender of Fort Sumter in April, Lincoln
had used his executive powers for a series of extraordinary measures, including the call
for military volunteers and the suspension of the right of habeas corpus. His message is
devoted in part to justifying these actions, while also seeking congressional support of a
military effort to deal with the crisis. Characterizing the actions of the southern states as
rebellion or domestic insurrection, Lincoln once again attempts to discredit any
constitutional right of secession.
[July 4, 1861]
Fellow-citizens of the Senate and
House of Representatives: ...
....[The assailants on the government] have forced upon the
country, the distinct issue: "Immediate dissolution, or blood."
And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States.
It presents to the whole family of man the question, whether a
Constitutional republic, or a democracy—a government of the
people, by the same people—can, or cannot, maintain its territorial
integrity against its own domestic foes. It presents the question,
whether discontented individuals, too few in numbers to control
administration, according to organic law, in any case, can always,
upon the pretences made in this case, or on any other pretences, or
arbitrarily, without any pretence, break up their government, and
thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth....
It might seem, at first thought, to be of little difference whether the present movement at the South be called "secession" or
"rebellion." The movers, however, well understand the difference.
At the beginning, they knew they could never raise their treason to
any respectable magnitude, by any name which implies violation
of law. They knew their people possessed as much of moral sense,
as much of devotion to law and order, and as much pride in, and
reverence for, the history and government of their common
country, as any other civilized and patriotic people....The sophism
itself is, that any State of the Union may, consistently with the
national Constitution, and therefore lawfully, and peacefully,
withdraw from the Union, without the consent of the Union, or of
any other state. The little disguise that the supposed right is to be
exercised only for just cause, themselves to be the sole judge of its
justice, is too thin to merit any notice.
With rebellion thus sugar-coated, they have been drugging the
public mind of their section for more than thirty years; and, until at
length they have brought many good men to a willingness to take
up arms against the government the day after some assemblage of
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Lincoln's Message to Congress, 1861
men have enacted the farcical pretence of taking their State out of
the Union, who could have been brought to no such thing the day
before.
This sophism derives much—perhaps the whole—of its currency
from the assumption that there is some omnipotent, and sacred
supremacy, pertaining to a State—to each State of our Federal
Union. Our States have neither more, nor less power, than that
reserved to them, in the Union, by the Constitution—no one of
them ever having been a State out of the Union. The original ones
passed into the Union even before they cast off their British
colonial dependence; and the new ones each came into the Union
directly from a condition of dependence, excepting Texas. And
even Texas, in its temporary independence, was never designated a
State. The new ones only took the designation of States, on coming
into the Union, while that name was first adopted for the old ones,
in and by the Declaration of Independence. Therein the "United
Colonies" were declared to be "Free and Independent States"; but,
even then, the object plainly was not to declare their independence
of one another, or of the Union; but directly the contrary, as their
mutual pledge, and their mutual action, before, at the time, and
afterwards, abundantly show. The express plighting of faith, by
each and all of the original thirteen, in the Articles of
Confederation, two years later, that the Union shall be perpetual, is
most conclusive. Having never been States, either in substance, or
in name, outside of the Union, whence this magical omnipotence
of "State rights," asserting a claim of power to lawfully destroy the
Union itself? ...The Union is older than any of the States, and, in
fact, it created them as States. Originally, some dependent colonies
made the Union, and, in turn, the Union threw off their old
dependence, for them, and made them States, such as they are. Not
one of them ever had a State constitution independent of the
Union. Of course, it is not forgotten that all the new States framed
their constitutions, before they entered the Union; nevertheless,
dependent upon, and preparatory to, coming into the Union.
Unquestionably the States have the powers and rights reserved to them in and by the National Constitution; but among these, surely,
are not included all conceivable powers, however mischievous, or
destructive; but, at most, such only, as were known in the world, at
the time, as governmental powers;...
Again, if one State may secede, so may another; and when all shall have seceded, none is left to pay the debts. Is this quite just to
creditors? Did we notify them of this sage view of ours, when we
borrowed their money? If we now recognize this doctrine, by
allowing the seceders to go in peace, it is difficult to see what we
can do, if others choose to go, or to extort terms upon which they
will promise to remain.
The seceders insist that our Constitution admits of secession. They have assumed to make a National Constitution of their own, in
which, of necessity, they have either discarded or retained the
right of secession, as, they insist, it exists in ours. If they have
discarded it, they thereby admit that, on principle, it ought not to be
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Lincoln's Message to Congress, 1861
in ours. If they have retained it, by their own construction of ours
they show that to be consistent they must secede from one another,
whenever they shall find it the easiest way of settling their debts,
or effecting any other selfish, or unjust object. The principle itself
is one of disintegration, and upon which no government can
possibly endure....
...Our adversaries have adopted some declarations of
independence; in which, unlike the good old one, penned by
Jefferson, they omit the words "all men are created equal." Why?
They have adopted a temporary national constitution, in the
preamble of which, unlike our good old one, signed by
Washington, they omit "We, the People," and substitute "We, the
deputies of the sovereign and independent States." Why? Why this
deliberate pressing out of view, the rights of men, and the
authority of the people?
This is essentially a People's contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form and substance of
government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of
men—to lift artificial weights from all shoulders—to clear the
paths of laudable pursuit for all—to afford all, an unfettered start,
and a fair chance, in the race of life....
Our popular government has often been called an experiment. Two points in it our people have already settled—the successful
establishing and the successful administering of it. One still
remains—its successful maintenance against a formidable internal
attempt to overthrow it. It is now for them to demonstrate to the
world, that those who can fairly carry an election, can also
suppress a rebellion; that ballots are the rightful, and peaceful,
successors of bullets; and that when ballots have fairly, and
constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal, back to
bullets; that there can be no successful appeal, except to ballots
themselves, at succeeding elections. Such will be a great lesson of
peace; teaching men that what they cannot take by an election,
neither can they take it by a war; teaching all, the folly of being the
beginners of a war....
The Constitution provides, and all the States have accepted the
provision, that "The United States shall guarantee to every State in
this Union a republican form of government." But, if a State may
lawfully go out of the Union, having done so, it may also discard
the republican form of government; so that to prevent its going out,
is an indispensable means, to the end, of maintaining the guaranty
mentioned; and when an end is lawful and obligatory, the
indispensable means to it, are also lawful, and obligatory.
It was with the deepest regret that the Executive found the duty of
employing the war-power, in defence of the government, forced
upon him. He could but perform this duty, or surrender the
existence of the government...
He felt that he had no moral right to shrink; nor even to count the
chances of his own life, in what might follow. In full view of his
great responsibility, he has, so far, done what he has deemed his
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Lincoln's Message to Congress, 1861
duty. You will now, according to your own judgment, perform
yours. He sincerely hopes that your views, and your action, may so
accord with his, as to assure all faithful citizens, who have been
disturbed in their rights, of a certain, and speedy restoration to
them, under the Constitution and the laws.
And having thus chosen our course, without guile, and with pure
purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without
fear, and with manly hearts.
Abraham Lincoln
July 4, 1861
Text corresponds with:
The Library of Congress. American Memory. Abraham Lincoln,
Message to Congress, Final Printed Draft, July 4, 1861.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/alhome.html
(use search function)
Text courtesy of:
The Library of Congress, American Memory, Washington, D.C.,
Abraham Lincoln Papers.
Transcription by:
The Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois.
file:///D|/Files/Documents/LincolnToCongress4Jul1861.htm[4/20/2014 12:08:28 PM]
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Bibliography
Great Neck, Publishing. "Declaration of causes which induced the secession of South Carolina." Declaration
Of Causes Which Induced The Secession Of South Carolina (January 10, 2009): 3. History
Reference Center , EBSCO host (accessed March 2, 2012).
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Declaration of Causes Which Induced the Secession of South Carolina
The people of the State of South Carolina in Convention assembled, on the 2d day of April, A. D. 1852,
declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States by the Federal Government,
and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in their withdrawal
from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other Slaveholding States, she
forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time these encroachments have continued to increase,
and further forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
And now the State of South Carolina having resumed her separate and equal place among nations, deems
it due to herself, to the remaining United States of America, and to the nations of the world, that she
should declare the immediate causes which have led to this act.
In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire embracing Great Britain undertook to make laws for the
Government of that portion composed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of selfgovernment ensued, which resulted, on the 4th of July, 1776, in a Declaration, by the Colonies, "that they
are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; and that, as free and independent States, they
have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other
acts and things which independent States may of right do."
They further solemnly declared that whenever any "form of government becomes destructive of the ends
for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new
government." Deeming the Government of Great Britain to have become destructive of these ends, they
file:///C|/...g/Documents/Honors United States History II/Civil War/Secession/Declaration of Causes Which Induced the Secession of SC.htm[4/29/2014 12:38:51 PM]
EBSCOhost
declared that the Colonies "are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political
connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."
In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence, each of the thirteen States proceeded to exercise its
separate sovereignty; adopted for itself a Constitution, and appointed officers for the administration of
government in all its departments--Legislative, Executive and Judicial. For purposes of defence they united
their arms and their counsels; and, in 1778, they entered into a League known as the Articles of
Confederation, whereby they agreed to intrust the administration of their external relations to a common
agent, known as the Congress of the United States, expressly declaring, in the first article, "that each State
retains it sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not, by
this Confederation, expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled."
Under this Confederation the War of the Revolution was carried on; and on the 3d of September, 1783, the
contest ended, and a definite Treaty was signed by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged the
Independence of the Colonies in the following terms:
"Article 1. His Brittanic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz.: New Hampshire, Massachusetts
Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware,
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free, sovereign, and independent
States; that he treats with them as such; and, for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims
to the government, propriety, and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof."
Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colonies, namely, the right of a State to
govern itself; and the right of a people to abolish a Government when it becomes destructive of the ends
for which it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of these principles, was the fact, that
each Colony became and was recognized by the mother country as a free, sovereign and independent
state.
In 1787, Deputies were appointed by the States to revise the articles of Confederation; and on 17th
September, 1787, these Deputies recommended, for the adoption of the States, the Articles of Union,
known as the Constitution of the United States.
The parties to whom this constitution was submitted were the several sovereign States; they were to agree
or disagree, and when nine of them agreed, the compact was to take effect among those concurring; and
the General Government, as the common agent, was then to be invested with their authority.
If only nine of the thirteen States had concurred, the other four would have remained as they then were-separate, sovereign States, independent of any of the provisions of the Constitution. In fact, two of the
States did not accede to the Constitution until long after it had gone into operation among the other
eleven; and during that interval, they each exercised the functions of an independent nation.
By this Constitution, certain duties were imposed upon the several States, and the exercise of certain of
their powers was restrained, which necessarily impelled their continued existence as sovereign states. But,
to remove all doubt, an amendment was added, which declared that the powers not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people. On the 23d May, 1788, South Carolina, by a Convention of her people, passed an
ordinance assenting to this Constitution, and afterwards altered her own Constitution to conform herself to
the obligations she had undertaken.
Thus was established, by compact between the States, a Government with defined objects and powers,
limited to the express words of the grant. This limitation left the whole remaining mass of power subject to
the clause reserving it to the States or the people, and rendered unnecessary any specification of reserved
rights. We hold that the Government thus established is subject to the two great principles asserted in the
Declaration of Independence; and we hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third
fundamental principle, namely, the law of compact. We maintain that in every compact between two or
more parties, the obligation is mutual; that the failure of one of the contracting parties to perform a
material part of the agreement, entirely releases the obligation of the other; and that, where no arbiter is
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provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all its
consequences.
In the present case, that fact is established with certainty. We assert that fourteen of the States have
deliberately refused for years past to fulfil their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own
statutes for the proof.
The Constitution of the United States, in its fourth Article, provides as follows:
"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 stipulation was so material to the compact that without it that compact would not have been made.
The greater number of the contracting parties held slaves, and they had previously evinced their estimate
of the value of such a stipulation by making it a condition in the Ordinance for the government of the
territory ceded by Virginia, which obligations, and the laws of the General Government, have ceased to
effect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, have
enacted laws which either nullify the acts of Congress, or render useless any attempt to execute them. In
many of these States the fugitive is discharged from the service of labor claimed, and in none of them has
the State Government complied with the stipulation made in the Constitution. The State of New Jersey, at
an early day, passed a law in conformity with her constitution obligation; but the current of Anti-Slavery
feeling has led her more recently to enact laws which render inoperative the remedies provided by her own
laws and by the laws of Congress. In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been
denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives
charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. Thus the constitutional
compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States; and the
consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.
The ends for which this Constitution was framed are declared by itself to be "to form a more perfect union,
to establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."
These ends it endeavored to accomplish by a Federal Government, in which each State was recognized as
an equal, and had separate control over its own institutions. The right of property in slaves was recognized
by giving to free persons distinct political rights; by giving them the right to represent, and burdening them
with direct taxes for, three-fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the importation of slaves for twenty years;
and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives from labor.
We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the
Government itself has been destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States
have assumed the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the
rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have
denounced as sinful the institution of Slavery; they have permitted the open establishment among them of
societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace of and eloin the property of the citizens of others
States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who
remain, have been incited by emissaries, books, and pictures, to servile insurrection.
For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the
power of the common Government. Observing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party has found
within that article establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself. A
geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the
election of a man to the high office of President of the United States whose opinions and purposes are
hostile to Slavery. He is to be intrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he
has declared that that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free," and that the public
mind must rest in the belief that Slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.
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This sectional combination for the subversion of the Constitution has been aided, in some of the States, by
elevating to citizenship persons who, by the supreme law of the land, are incapable of becoming citizens;
and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and destructive of its
peace and safety.
On the 4th 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 tribunal shall be made sectional, and
that a war must be waged against Slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States.
The guarantees of the Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost. The
Slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection, and the Federal
Government will have become their enemy.
Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the irritation; and all hope of remedy is rendered vain, by the
fact that the public opinion at the North has invested a great political error with the sanctions of a more
erroneous religious belief.
We, therefore, the people of South Carolina, by our delegates in Convention assembled, appealing to the
Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, have solemnly declared that the Union
heretofore existing between this State and the other States of North America is dissolved, and that the
State of South Carolina has resumed her position among the nations of the world, as separate and
independent state, with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and
to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.
The Essential Documents of American History was compiled by Norman P. Desmarais and James H.
McGovern of Providence College.
Also Fremont's Proclamation on Slaves
Also Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union
Copyright of Declaration of Causes which Induced the Secession of South Carolina is the property of Great
Neck Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv
without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email
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Eagles Nest
Folly Of Secession
Pending Conflict 1
Pending Conflict 2
Poem on Secession, 1861
A Poem on Secession: "Brother Jonathan's Lament for
Sister Caroline," by Oliver Wendell Holmes
1861
In March 1861 Oliver Wendell Holmes—the distinguished Massachusetts physician,
essayist, and poet (and father of the man of the same name who would fight in the Civil
War and eventually become an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court)—wrote the
following poem. "Brother Jonathan" refers to the United States or the Union (much as
"Uncle Sam" personifies the United States today). "Sister Caroline" is South Carolina.
Compare Holmes's characterization of South Carolina's secession with that expressed in
the Charleston Mercury article (see Secession Of SC 1860 document).
She has gone,—she has left us in passion and pride
Our stormy-browed sister, so long at our side!
She has torn her own star from our firmament's glow,
And turned on her brother the face of a foe!
Oh Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun,
We can never forget that our hearts have been one,—
Our foreheads both sprinkled in Liberty's name,
From the fountain of blood with the finger of flame!
You were always too ready to fire at a touch;
But we said: "She is hasty,—she does not mean much."
We have scowled, when you uttered some turbulent threat;
But Friendship still whispered,"Forgive and forget!"
Has our love all died out? Have its altars grown cold?
Has the curse come at last which the fathers foretold?
Then Nature must teach us the strength of the chain,
That her petulant children would sever in vain.
They may fight till the buzzards are gorged with their spoil,
Till the harvest grows black as it rots in the soil,
Till the wolves and the catamounts troop from their caves,
And the shark tracks the pirate, the lord of the waves;
In vain is the strife! When its fury is past,
Their fortunes must flow in one channel at last,
As the torrents that rush from the mountains of snow
Roll mingled in peace through the valleys below.
Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky:
Man breaks not the medal when God cuts the die!
Though darkened with sulphur, though cloven with steel,
The blue arch will brighten, the waters will heal!
Oh Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun,
There are battles with Fate that can never be won!
The star-flowering banner must never be furled,
For its blossoms of light are the hope of the world!
Go, then, our rash sister! afar and aloof,
Run wild in the sunshine away from our roof;
But when your heart aches and your feet have grown sore,
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Poem on Secession, 1861
Remember the pathway that leads to our door!
Text corresponds with:
Holmes, Oliver Wendell. "Brother Jonathan's Lament for Sister
Caroline" In The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes,
edited by Eleanor Tilton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975. 111–
12.
Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
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Secession Banner
Secession Movement
South Carolina Secedes from the Union, 1860
South Carolina Secedes from the Union
1860
The dramatic events of South Carolina's first step into secession are described in the
Charleston Mercury of December 21, 1860.
THE
UNION
IS
DISSOLVED!
The 20th Day of December, 1860
Inscribed among the calends of the world—memorable in time to
come—the 20th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1860,
has become an epoch in the history of the human race. A great
Confederated Republic, overwrought with arrogant and tyrannous
oppressions, has fallen from its high estate amongst the nations of
the earth.— Conservative liberty has been vindicated. Mobocratic
license has been stricken down. Order has conquered, yet liberty
has survived. Right has raised his banner aloft and bidden
defiance to Might. The problem of self-government under the
check-balance of slavery, has secured itself from threatened
destruction.
South Carolina has resumed her entire sovereign powers, and,
unshackled, has become one of the nations of the earth.
On yesterday, the 20th of December, 1860, just before one o
['clock] p.m., an Ordinance of Secession was presented by the
Committee on Ordinance, "to the Convention of the people of
South Carolina." Precisely at seven minutes after one o ['clock],
the vote was taken upon the Ordinance—each man's name being
called in order. As name by name fell upon the ear of the silent
assembly, the brief sound was echoed back, without solitary
exception in the whole grave body—Aye!
At 1:15 o ['clock] p.m.—the last name was called, the Ordinance
of Secession was announced to have been passed, and the last
fetter has fallen from the links of the brave, but too long
oppressed people.
The Convention sat with closed doors. But upon the
announcement outside, and upon the MERCURY bulletin board,
that South Carolina was no longer a member of the Federal Union,
loud shouts of joy rent the ear. The enthusiasm was unsurpassed.
Old men went shouting down the streets. Cannon were fired, and
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South Carolina Secedes from the Union, 1860
bright triumph was depicted on every countenance.
But before the Great Seal of the State was affixed to the
Ordinance of Secession, and names of the Delegates to the
Convention were signed, it was proposed that this ceremony
should be postponed until 7 o ['clock] that evening; when the
Convention should reassemble and move in procession from the
St. Andrew Hall, where they then sat, to the great Secession Hall;
and that there, before the assembled citizens of the State, the Great
Seal of the State should be set, and each signature made. The
proposition was favorably received.
At 6 o ['clock] p.m., the Convention reassembled at St. Andrew
Hall. At 6 o ['clock] p.m., they formed in procession and moved
forward in silence to Secession Hall.
The building was filled to overflowing, and they were received by some three thousand people in the Hall.
The Convention was called to order. The scene was one
profoundly grand and impressive. There were people assembled
through their highest representatives—men most of them upon
whose heads the snows of sixty winters had been shed—
patriarchs in age—the dignitaries of the land—the High Priests of
the Church of Christ—reverend statesmen—and the wise judges
of the law. In the midst of deep silence, an old man, with bowed
form, and hair as white as snow, the Rev. BACHMAN [Dr. John
Bachman], advanced forward, with upraised hands, in prayer to
Almighty God, for His blessing and favor in this great act of his
people, about to be consummated. The whole assembly at once
rose to its feet, and with hats off, listened to the touching and
eloquent appeal to the All Wise Dispenser of events. At the close
of the prayer the President [of the convention, David F. Jamison]
advanced with the consecrated parchment upon which was
inscribed the decision of the State, with the Great Seal attached.
Slowly and solemnly it was read unto the last word...when men
could contain themselves no longer, and a shout that shook the
very building, reverberating, long-continued, rose to Heaven, and
ceased only with the loss of breath. In proud, grave silence, the
Convention itself waited the end with beating hearts.
The President then requested the Delegates (by previous decision) to step forward as they were called in the alphabetical order of the
Districts which they represented, and sign the Ordinance. Two
hours were occupied in this solemn ceremony—the crowd waiting
patiently the end. As the delegates from St. Philip and St. Michael
came forward, again, the hall was filled with applause. And as the
Hon. R.B. RHETT [Robert Barnwell Rhett] advanced to the
parchment, the shouts became deafening, long-continued, until he
had seated himself, signed and retired. The same special
compliment was paid to our Ex-Governor GIST [John Henry
Gist], who recommended in his message to the extra session, the
immediate secession of South Carolina from the Union.
At the close of signatures the President, advancing to the front of
the platform, announced that the Seal of the State had been set,
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South Carolina Secedes from the Union, 1860
the signatures of the Convention put to the Ordinance, and he
hereby proclaimed the State of South Carolina a separate,
independent nationality.
To describe the enthusiasm with which this announcement was
greeted, is beyond the power of the pen. The high, burning,
bursting heart alone can realize it. A mighty voice of great
thoughts and great emotions spoke from the might throat of one
people as a unit.
The State of South Carolina has recorded herself before the
universe. In reverence before God, fearless of man, unawed by
power, unterrified by clamor, she has cut the Gordian knot of
colonial dependence upon the North—cast her fortune upon her
right, and her own right arm, and stands ready to uphold alike her
independence and her dignity before the world. Prescribing to
none, she will be dictated to none. Willing for peace, she is ready
for war. Deprecating blood, she is willing to shed it. Valuing her
liberties, she will maintain them. Neither swerved by frowns of
foes, nor swayed by timorous solicitations of friends, she will
pursue her direct path, and establish for herself and for her
posterity, her rights, her liberties and her institutions. Though
friends may fail her in her need, though the cannon of her
enemies may belch destruction among her people, South Carolina,
unawed, unconquerable, will still hold aloft her flag, "ANIMUS
OBISQUE PARATI."
Text corresponds with:
Charleston Mercury, December 21, 1860.
Reprinted by permission of:
Rob Nagy and Accessible Archives, Inc: The Civil War: A
Newspaper Perspective November 1860–April 1865 (CD-ROM).
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