 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.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.