<P> Other religious institutions in South Carolina also expressed support for slavery . The Southern Presbyterian of S.C. declared that: </P> <P> Anti-slavery is essentially infidel . It wars upon the Bible, on the Church of Christ, on the truth of God, on the souls of men . </P> <P> On November 10, 1860 the S.C. General Assembly called for a "Convention of the People of South Carolina" to consider secession . Delegates were to be elected on December 6 . The secession convention convened in Columbia on December 17 and voted unanimously, 169 - 0, to declare secession from the United States . The convention then adjourned to Charleston to draft an ordinance of secession . When the ordinance was adopted on December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first slave state in the south to declare that it had seceded from the United States . James Buchanan, the United States president, declared the ordinance illegal but did not act to stop it . </P> <P> A committee of the convention also drafted a Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina which was adopted on December 24 . The secession declaration stated the primary reasoning behind South Carolina's declaring of secession from the Union, which was described as: </P>

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