they were NOT in any way more than the beliefs of the FEW people, who wrote them, either. the "declarations" spoke for NOBODY except the private authors, who wrote the papers; furthermore the "declarations" cannot be said to even be typical of the thoughts of other slave-owners. they were read by almost NOBODY, either (with the exception of the authors, themselves).
had the "authors" of the "declarations" chosen to publish "Mary Had a Little Lamb" instead, that child's POEM would have been just as meaningful to the WBTS period as the rantings of the authors were.
the so-called "declarations" are MEANINGLESS as causes of the WBTS. almost no serious historian believes the documents to be of ANY VALUE whatever in determining ANYTHING about the antebellum period of US history. (frankly, even mentioning the "declarations" as IMPORTANT historical documents will get you RIDICULED and laughed AT as a nitwit/dunce/fool, by serious historians.)
free dixie,sw
As usual, Watie lies. The declarations of causes were issued by the same state secession conventions that issued their acts of secession. Watie can't claim one was a valid expression of the state and the other not.
In each case, the convention voted to create a committee to draft the "causes" document. In each case, the draft document came to the floor of the convention, was debated, possibly slightly amended, and then voted on. I believe that each was passed unanimously by the general convention, but I could be wrong on that one.