As the first state to secede, South Carolina's “Declarations” established precedent and unabashedly claimed that the primary reason for secession remained the refusal of northern states to comply with the Fugitive Slave Act and the Dred Scott (1857) decision.
The fundamental cause of southern secession (and ultimately the Civil War) was the US's inability to solve slavery at the national level. ... When the northern states were threatened by the War of 1812, they considered secession. When South Carolina was threatened by a tariff, they attempted to nullify the law.
