150th Anniversary of War Between Americans, 1861-1865: God's Righteous Judgment upon both North and South for National Sin of Unbiblical American Slavery - Part 10(c)

Part 10(c) - South Carolina Secession Convention declares "Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union"
- SLAVERY, SLAVERY, SLAVERY - December 24, 1860

December 24, 1860 (Charleston, SC) - "David F. Jamison, President of Convention of the People of South Carolina, appointed a committee “to draft a summary statement of the causes which justify the secession of South Carolina.” Charles G. Memminger was part of this committee and is considered the main author of the “summary statement” that became known as the “Declaration of Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina.”
www.teachingushistory.org/lessons/DecofImCauses.htm

"The convention, ... , in formulating a separate justification for its simple statement of repeal, would make it clear that it adopted the Ordinance of Secession to defend slavery.

"... the convention ... voted by a margin of more than four to one to issue the declaration. Thus they agreed, in the words of delegate Lawrence M. Keitt, to "rest disunion upon the question of slavery."
Source: Relic of the Lost Cause, The Story of South Carolina’s Ordinance of Secession, by Charles H. Lesser, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 1990, page 11.

[ emphasis added ]

"The convention, ... , in formulating a separate justification for its simple statement of repeal, would make it clear that it adopted the Ordinance of Secession to defend slavery. Shortly before the committee to draft the ordinance made its report on the 20th, President Jamison, who doubtless was privy to the committee's work, had appointed another "Committee to draft a summary statement of the causes which justify the secession of South Carolina." Christopher G. Memminger, a conservative former Unionist from Charleston who later served as secretary of the treasury of the Confederacy, chaired the committee. Memminger's committee reported the next day, but it was the 24th before the convention adopted the "Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union."

"A short document, the "Declaration of Immediate Causes" claimed that the northern states had "deliberately broken" the federal compact by repudiating their responsibility under the fourth article of the United States Constitution to return runaway slaves. South Carolina was thus "released from her obligation." This constitutional argument did not please everyone. In the debate in the convention, Maxcy Gregg, in particular, argued that the committee's proposed statement was insufficient for "a new Declaration of Independence." The document should, he said, also emphasize the tariff and federal expenditures for internal improvements. Although Gregg's unhappiness with the document's exclusive emphasis on slavery would be echoed later, the convention overrode his objections and voted by a margin of more than four to one to issue the declaration. Thus they agreed, in the words of delegate Lawrence M. Keitt, to "rest disunion upon the question of slavery."

continued...

" ... the Ordinance of Secession endures at "the vital center of our history," a Declaration of Independence, defense of slavery, trophy of war, and relic of the Lost Cause."

Source: Relic of the Lost Cause, The Story of South Carolina’s Ordinance of Secession, by Charles H. Lesser, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 1990, pp. 11, 20.

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