"The union is dissolved!" Was the headline in
Charleston newspapers on December 20th,1860 after South Carolina
was the first to exercise her sovereign right to peacefully secede
from these united States.
The right to secede was a right that was
understood by all of the states prior to the War for Southern
Independence. This view is affirmed by the constitution and in the
principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. Most
Southerners believed that Self-government is one of the primary
rights of Man.
Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton both
asserted that the Constitution is a compact and the States are
sovereign.
The northern States violated the constitution on a
number of grounds. Along with the unbalance of representation in
congress and with three-fourths of the taxes being paid by the
South while three-fourths of the tax money was being spent in the
north, Southerners had had enough.
