South carolina justified its secession by issuing a document similar to

South Carolina issued a document similar to the Declaration of Independence. The document created by South Carolina was called the "Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union."

In this document, the South Carolina goes over their feelings on how the federal government was mistreating the state and failing to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act enacted during the Compromise of 1850. This list of complaints/reasons for the secession was structured very similarly to the Declaration of Independence, in which the American colonists generated a list of reasons why they were breaking away from the British.