Standard
HS.H2.1 Explain multiple causes of conflict.
Learning Target
I can explain multiple causes and effects the Civil War had on the people of the United States.
Instructions
Read the Background and Excerpts (below in Guided Notes) from the Article - South Carolina’s Declaration of the Causes of Secession
Complete the Guided Notes on the specific excerpts provided.
Guided Notes
Background
Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election of 1860 with about 40 per cent of the popular vote, the rest divided among three other candidates (Democratic Party Platform). Lincoln would have won the electoral college vote and become president even if all the votes for the other candidates had gone to just one of them, since the free states Lincoln won had sufficient electoral votes to elect a president. As a consequence of Lincoln’s election, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, after decades threatening nullification and secession under the banner of states’ rights. On November 10, 1860, only days after Lincoln’s election to the presidency, the South Carolina General Assembly called for a convention of the people of the state to consider secession, members of which were elected early the next month. The convention, composed of 169 delegates, voted unanimously in favor of secession and quickly drew up the declaration of secession to explain its reasons for dissolving the Union.
President James Buchanan (1791–1868), who had not run for re-election, in his last State of the Union Address (December 3, 1860) denied the right of states to secede, disappointing the South, and blamed anti-slavery sentiment for creating discord and disunion, aggravating the North. He then denied that the president or the federal government had any authority to prevent secession. He remained in office until March 4, 1861. During that time, six states—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas—joined South Carolina in declaring their secession from the Union.
As others had since the time of the Missouri Compromise (Missouri Compromise Act), the authors of the South Carolina Declaration addressed the character of the Union and defended the justice of their decision by offering a history of the founding of the United States. (Compare the account here with Abraham Lincoln’s, Appendix E.) The South Carolina Declaration also echoes the argument and even some of the phrases of the Declaration of Independence, without, of course, mentioning its key premise, human equality.
Guided Notes
Excerpt #1
(1) - 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 provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all its consequences.
(2) - In the present case, that fact is established with certainty. We assert that fourteen of the states have deliberately refused, for years past, to fulfill their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own statutes for the proof.
(3) - 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.”
(4) - 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[3] for the government of the territory ceded by Virginia, which now composes the states north of the Ohio River.
Questions
1. According to the South Carolinian delegates, what is the 'law of compact,' a fundamental principle they believe found in the Declaration of Independence?
2. Using the principle of 'law of compact,' what was South Carolina declaring they had the right to do?
3. In section (3), what is the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States describing?
4. In section (4), according to South Carolina, what allowed the parties to agree to the Constitution in the first place?
5. According to South Carolina, the main reason they were seceding was because of what?
HS.H2.1 Explain multiple causes of conflict.
Learning Target
I can explain multiple causes and effects the Civil War had on the people of the United States.
Instructions
Read the Background and Excerpts (below in Guided Notes) from the Article - South Carolina’s Declaration of the Causes of Secession
Complete the Guided Notes on the specific excerpts provided.
Guided Notes
Background
Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election of 1860 with about 40 per cent of the popular vote, the rest divided among three other candidates (Democratic Party Platform). Lincoln would have won the electoral college vote and become president even if all the votes for the other candidates had gone to just one of them, since the free states Lincoln won had sufficient electoral votes to elect a president. As a consequence of Lincoln’s election, South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, after decades threatening nullification and secession under the banner of states’ rights. On November 10, 1860, only days after Lincoln’s election to the presidency, the South Carolina General Assembly called for a convention of the people of the state to consider secession, members of which were elected early the next month. The convention, composed of 169 delegates, voted unanimously in favor of secession and quickly drew up the declaration of secession to explain its reasons for dissolving the Union.
President James Buchanan (1791–1868), who had not run for re-election, in his last State of the Union Address (December 3, 1860) denied the right of states to secede, disappointing the South, and blamed anti-slavery sentiment for creating discord and disunion, aggravating the North. He then denied that the president or the federal government had any authority to prevent secession. He remained in office until March 4, 1861. During that time, six states—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas—joined South Carolina in declaring their secession from the Union.
As others had since the time of the Missouri Compromise (Missouri Compromise Act), the authors of the South Carolina Declaration addressed the character of the Union and defended the justice of their decision by offering a history of the founding of the United States. (Compare the account here with Abraham Lincoln’s, Appendix E.) The South Carolina Declaration also echoes the argument and even some of the phrases of the Declaration of Independence, without, of course, mentioning its key premise, human equality.
Guided Notes
Excerpt #1
(1) - 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 provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all its consequences.
(2) - In the present case, that fact is established with certainty. We assert that fourteen of the states have deliberately refused, for years past, to fulfill their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own statutes for the proof.
(3) - 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.”
(4) - 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[3] for the government of the territory ceded by Virginia, which now composes the states north of the Ohio River.
Questions
1. According to the South Carolinian delegates, what is the 'law of compact,' a fundamental principle they believe found in the Declaration of Independence?
2. Using the principle of 'law of compact,' what was South Carolina declaring they had the right to do?
3. In section (3), what is the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States describing?
4. In section (4), according to South Carolina, what allowed the parties to agree to the Constitution in the first place?
5. According to South Carolina, the main reason they were seceding was because of what?
Additional Readings