Confederate States of America History: What Are Articles of Secession?

When the South tried to secede from the United States to form the Confederate States of America, each state issued an article of secession.

According to the Constitution Society, the articles of secession, also known as the ordinances of secession, included the legal language by which the states cut ties with the Union.

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South Carolina, the first state to declare its independence from the United States, wrote, “All acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the ‘United States of America,’ is hereby dissolved.”

Political theory of the time stated when separating from a nation, it had to be done by a specially elected convention or voted upon by referendum of the people.

According to the Constitution Society, Missouri’s and Kentucky’s secessions would have been flawed, for neither’s articles were passed in these manners.

A Missouri rump legislature led by Gov. C.F. Jackson, who had been removed from office by the State Convention, agreed upon its article and was not approved by the public, making it void.

In Kentucky, on other hand, 200 residents came together to form a “Convention of the People of Kentucky,” stating, “In the name of the people we do hereby declare Kentucky to be a free and independent State.” These Kentuckians, however, were not elected to make the ordinance.

In addition to these ordinances, four states also issues declarations of causes, which, like the original Declaration of Independence, included grievances, explaining what the states believed to be the North’s wrongdoings and their reasons for the departures.

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Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas all issued declarations of causes, according to the Civil War Trust.

The articles of secession of the other states included some of their grievances in addition to their declarations of leaving the Union.

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