<P> The opening portion of the declaration outlines the historical background of South Carolina and offers a legal justification for its secession . It asserts that the right of states to secede is implicit in the Constitution and this right was explicitly reaffirmed by South Carolina in 1852 . The declaration states that the agreement between South Carolina and the United States is subject to the law of compact, which creates obligations on both parties and which revokes the agreement if either party fails to uphold its obligations . </P> <P> The next section asserts that the government of the United States and of states within that government had failed to uphold their obligations to South Carolina . The specific issue stated was the refusal of some states to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act and clauses in the U.S. Constitution protecting slavery and the federal government's perceived role in attempting to abolish slavery . </P> <P> The next section states that while these problems had existed for twenty - five years, the situation had recently become unacceptable due to the election of a President (this was Abraham Lincoln although he is not mentioned by name) who was planning to outlaw slavery . In reference to the failure of the northern states to uphold the Fugitive Slave Act, South Carolina states the primary reason for its secession: </P> <P> The General Government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry into effect these stipulations of the States . For many years these laws were executed . But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution . </P>

List the reasons for south carolina's secession