Lincoln's election provoked
South Carolina's legislature to call a state convention to consider secession. South Carolina had done more than any other state to advance the notion that a state had the right to
nullify federal laws and even secede. On December 20, 1860, the convention unanimously voted to secede and adopted
a secession declaration. It argued for states' rights for slave owners but complained about states' rights in the North in the form of resistance to the federal Fugitive Slave Act, claiming that Northern states were not fulfilling their obligations to assist in the return of fugitive slaves. The "cotton states" of
Mississippi,
Florida,
Alabama,
Georgia,
Louisiana, and
Texas followed suit, seceding in January and February 1861.
