South Carolina Declaration of Causes of Secession

Questions for Further Study

• 1. Historians and other scholars are fond of pondering great “what if” questions. Allow your mind to range broadly over the potential outcomes of the Civil War. What if the South had won the war? What does your vision of the United States say about a southern triumph?
• 2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the compact theory? Does the theory support secession?
• 3. Did South Carolina express adequate justification for its secession from the Union? If not, how might it have strengthened its case?
• 4. Did the Union encroach on the rights of South Carolina, as asserted in the document?
• 5. Were South Carolina's fears of Abraham Lincoln justified? Why or why not?