Essay On The Secession Of South Carolina

In the last month of 1860 many articles were written previous to, and following, the secession of South Carolina. South Carolina separated from the Union that constitutes the United States December 20, 1860. The articles: Confederate States of America - Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union, New-York Daily Tribune – The Right of Secession and, New-York Times – Peaceable Secession, are all writings specific to South Carolina’s secession from the US. All three sources were written within a week of each other and roughly a month before the first hostile act of the Civil war, and demonstrate the tension and division that the idea of secession put on both the Union and the Confederation. Since written from different perspectives and different people, the three articles have strong, but very different opinions on the secession of states such as and including South Carolina.
The article Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina written by the Confederate States of America, argues that the federal government breached the terms and conditions of the constitution.
The constitution is a contract between states and federal government that create fundamental principles and established precedents on how a state will be governed. This contract, in the opinion of the Confederate States of America, has been broken by the federal government, which has lead to the secession of South Carolina. In document Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina, the main purpose is to justify their leaving the Union. The document argues that the government became “destructive of the ends for which it is instituted.” This is the justification of the State of South Carolina; if the government can break the contract that is the constitution then the state can leave the
Union. The article by the New-York Tribune is in response to the document written by the Confederate States of America however; it has a different opinion on the matter of South Carolina’s secession from the Union. The article believes that the contract had not been breeched and by leaving the union the state of South Carolina was committing treason. However, the over riding consideration that leads the article to say that it should be the states right to choose to secede or not is freedom of choice. The Tribunes opinion “But if ever "seven or eight States" send agents to Washington to say "We want to get out of the Union," we shall feel constrained by our devotion to Human Liberty to say, Let them go!” The quote puts forward the idea that if South Carolina does not want to be part of the Union then Union, regardless of “legalities” should let them make their own choice. Like the New-York Tribune, the New-York Times shares the idea that South Carolina seceding from the Union is a treasonous act. Unlike the Tribune, the Times take it another step further. Based on that opinion in the Tribune the Times asks, “Why should any man be hung for murder, or imprisoned for theft, or punished in any way for any violation of law.” The Times suggests that rather then government giving into the seceding States it should act how it would if another law is broken and that is through punishment or with force. Secession is treason in the opinions of the Times and not only should South Carolina be punished but should be forced to stay within the Union.
Despite the many differences among these articles, they are more similar than people may confer. The two articles from the New-York newspapers, the Tribune and the Times are both in response to the document Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union however; both show different degrees of aggression towards the topic. In conclusion the three sources demonstrate the two ends of the spectrum of opinions with a “middle” or “moderate” or “conciliators” view.