On December 20, 1860, South Carolina Becomes First State to Leave Union

On December 20, 1860, the state of South Carolina voted to remove itself from the United States of America. Within a matter of weeks, the other states of the Deep South had followed suit. The Upper South remained on the fence, until after Fort Sumter. At which point, most of them, including Virginia and Tennessee, joined the fray.

The American Civil War remains one of the most interesting and debated topics in American history. Why was the war fought? What were the southern states clamoring for? Was the war about slavery? Is the Confederate flag a racist symbol? Was the North fighting for justice and racial equality? These questions and others continue to provoke much thought and discussion, a lot of it quite contentious, to this day.

South Carolina's decision to secede was the culmination of North-South tensions stretching back to the founding of the United States of America. These tensions concerned a number of issues, including tariffs and slavery. In 1832, South Carolina threatened secession over the tariff issue. But without support from the rest of the South and in the face of strong declarations from President Andrew Jackson, South Carolina backed down. Not so in 1860, when Abraham Lincoln's election galvanized the Deep South.

The ordinance to secede was passed December 20, 1860. Four days later, South Carolina issued a document entitled "Causes of Secession," which served as a rough equivalent to the Declaration of Independence approved by the Second Continental Congress in July 1776. The "Causes of Secession" document makes clear the reasons for South Carolina's secession, as that was its very purpose.

After laying out its political and legal argument that the American Revolution established each state as "free and independent" and that the U.S. Constitution represented a mutual but conditional compact, the secession convention then proceeded to explain its rationale for withdrawing from said compact.

Topping the list was the fugitive slave issue. According to the Deep South, the northern states were refusing to capture and return escaped slaves. This was cited as a violation of Article IV: ""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." For allegedly breaking this part of the Constitution as well as related federal statutes, South Carolina claimed its right to secede.

Second, South Carolina cited the fugitive slave clause, the three-fifths clause, and the 20-year slave trade compromise as evidence that the Constitutional Convention recognized the "right of property in slaves." According to South Carolina, the northern states had sabotaged and thwarted that "right" - and thus South Carolina was justified to break away.

The document closes with a condemnation of the Republican Party for supporting effective citizenship for those "incapable" of citizenship and for campaigning against slavery in the territories. They also blamed the North for stirring up racial unrest and violence in the South, as in John Brown's Harpers Ferry raid.

These sentiments pretty well reprsented the feelings of the Deep South. That the other states of the Deep South followed suit with similarly worded declarations is evidence of this. The secession of the Deep South was driven primarily by the slavery issue. That is a historical fact, easily demonstrated by their own rhetoric.

Certainly, not all those who wore gray in the Civil War were pro-slavery. By the time the shooting started, the reasons for the war had expanded. But the initial decision to secede was principally concerning slavery. Let us never forget that. We must acknowledge the truth of the past, so we may properly learn from it.