Secession of South Carolina

Secession of South Carolina
Charleston Mercury · Public domain · source
Name	Secession of South Carolina
Date	December 20, 1860
Location	Charleston, South Carolina
Result	Ordinance of Secession; American Civil War

Secession of South Carolina

South Carolina withdrew from the United States on December 20, 1860, declaring independence after the election of Abraham Lincoln. The action precipitated a constitutional crisis that accelerated the collapse of national compromise institutions such as the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, provoking responses from state governments, national leaders, and military installations like Fort Sumter. The secession catalyzed formation of the Confederate States of America and set the stage for the American Civil War.

Background and Causes

In the decades before 1860, South Carolina politics were shaped by debates over slavery in the United States, states' rights advocates linked to figures like John C. Calhoun, and sectional tensions heightened by events such as the Kansas–Nebraska Act, the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, and the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The decline of the Whig Party and the rise of the Republican Party after the 1854 United States elections transformed national coalitions, while disputes over the Tariff of 1828 and plantation interests centered in the Lowcountry entrenched state elites. South Carolina's political culture drew on earlier episodes like the Nullification Crisis and the rhetoric of leaders such as Robert Barnwell Rhett and James Henry Hammond, who opposed perceived Northern interference with slaveholding and promoted doctrines traced to Calhounism.

Secession Convention and Ordinance

After Lincoln's victory in the 1860 United States presidential election, the South Carolina General Assembly called a special secession convention in Columbia, South Carolina. Delegates including William Henry Gist and Francis Wilkinson Pickens debated an Ordinance of Secession drafted amid speeches invoking the Declaration of Independence and state sovereignty claims. On December 20, 1860, the convention passed the ordinance and issued the "Declaration of Causes", which cited protections for slavery, alleged Northern hostility, and references to prior federal measures like the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

Immediate Reactions and Political Impact

News of the ordinance produced immediate reactions across capitals such as Washington, D.C., Montgomery, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Unionist politicians including James Buchanan and later Andrew Johnson appealed for preservation of the Union, while secessionist momentum inspired other states—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas—to convene conventions leading to their own ordinances. National debates in the United States Congress intensified, and media outlets like the New York Herald and the Charleston Courier amplified sectional rhetoric. Military assets became contested: Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor and supply disputes involving Major Robert Anderson and P.G.T. Beauregard foreshadowed armed conflict.

Formation of the Confederate Government and Military Actions

South Carolina delegates participated in meetings that culminated in the formation of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama, where leaders such as Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens emerged as president and vice president. South Carolina transferred state facilities, seized federal forts and arsenals including the Charleston Arsenal, and coordinated with Confederate authorities to mobilize militias under officers like Milledge Luke Bonham. Military episodes escalated when Confederate batteries under Brigadier General Pierre G. T. Beauregard fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861, prompting Lincoln's call for volunteers and full-scale war involving campaigns under commanders such as Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee.

Legal and Constitutional Arguments

Secessionists invoked legal theories rooted in the writings of John C. Calhoun and appeals to state sovereignty, arguing that the United States Constitution was a compact among sovereign states with reserved rights to withdraw. The South Carolina "Declaration of Causes" referenced the Constitution, prior statutes like the Fugitive Slave Act, and Supreme Court precedents including Dred Scott v. Sandford to argue for legal consistency. Opponents cited the Preamble to the United States Constitution and rulings such as interpretations later associated with Texas v. White to assert the indissolubility of the Union and the illegality of unilateral secession. Legal debate involved jurists, legislators, and pamphleteers in forums across Columbia, South Carolina, Baltimore, and Boston.

Aftermath and Reconstruction-era Consequences

Military defeat of the Confederacy led to occupation of South Carolina by United States Army forces and a complex Reconstruction process overseen by entities including the Freedmen's Bureau and the Reconstruction Acts. The state faced political upheaval as figures like Benjamin F. Perry and Robert K. Scott navigated reestablishment of civil government, enfranchisement of formerly enslaved people, and constitutional conventions that produced new state constitutions. South Carolina's economy and infrastructure, damaged by campaigns such as Sherman's March to the Sea and operations in the Carolinas Campaign, required federal relief and private investment. Long-term legacies included legal and social conflicts resolved only after the 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, and 15th Amendment reshaped citizenship and suffrage, and later periods like the Disenfranchisement after Reconstruction and the Jim Crow laws reflected contested reintegration.

Category:Secession