Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
Go to the bill of rights and check out the 10th amendment and decide for your self. Loosely quoted I believe it states that any powers not specifically given to the Federal government reside in the state government.
That means that if it ain't covered in the constitution (secession was not) then the states can decide to do exactly what they did.
So yes they had the right to secede because it was not forbidden by the government and the war was unjustly prosecuted by the North as a result.
I suppose in a perfect World that is the case... But how could the nation just let states leave when ever they wanted? There would be no security for the future generations.... no one would invest in a government that may not be here tomorrow... It has to be indivisible... there can be no leaving the Union... I was trying to find an excerpt from Lincoln's First Inaugural Address.. But there are too many parts that I want to paste on here... Bill, why don't you like Lincoln? I am curious to know because he really was a brilliant man. He knew how important it was for the future generations that the Union be kept together regardless the cost. And, as we are all here together- it is great that the entire nation is One...
Actually the war itself was unconstitutional, started by Abraham Lincoln because he and his political party destroyed the Union. Therefore, it became HIS responsibility to get the Union back together again. By continuing to send troops into the Confederate States (Fort Sumter, Fort Pickens) he forced the Confederates to do something. Many wars have been started before the shooting did. This is the case of this war.
Did the South have the Constitutional Right to secede? I agree with the above. If the right is not granted in the Constitution, then the right belongs to the States.
Mike, can I ask a current events question on this forum or is there a better place on this forum? This also concerns events started by Abraham Lincoln and continuing until this day. Please let me know.
How did the Republican Party destroy the union? and How did Lincoln? Ron, you said, "By continuing to send troops into the Confederate States (Fort Sumter, Fort Pickens) he forced the Confederates to do something."... How can you honestly think that way? From the beginning of january 1861, Southern militia were seizing Forts, Armories, Post offices, ect. from South Carolina to Texas. States like Alabama were seizing forts before they even voted to leave the union. Fort Sumpter and all the forts were Union Property- they had to be fortified and protected. There can only have been a war.
If anything, it was Buchanan's fault for not dealing and compromising with the south before it got out of control- and he was a Democrat...
Frank, lets start with this, I am glad that we are one country. I also feel that even had the south won her independence, I think that within a decade or two the country would have reunited. First of all, there were too many similarities between the two sections not to mention the fact that each half needed the others resources and finances. New York was heavily pro south because of the amount of money the city made off southern states. There was pro southern sentiment everywhere in the north. In Rockland county where I live, Lincoln lost the election of 1864,2000 votes to 1300.
Lincoln did not have an honest bone in his body. He was the consummate politician who would lie cheat or steal to get what he wanted. He had no principles. He would do whatever is necessary to achieve an end. He should have freed all the slaves, not just those south of the Mason Dixon Line. He had Clement Vallingdham (sp?) thrown out of the country because he was not afraid to speak his mind supporting the southern cause. Never mind suspending the writ of habeus corpus. The union was not really a union because the northern states were doing all they could to keep slavery in check (which was legal at the time) and they rammed tariffs down southerner's throats as well. Remember the great nullification controversy in South Carolina in the 1830's?
Back to Lincoln, he prevented states from leaving a government that was abusive to its parts. It was unconstitutional. Just maybe, had he made it known that he was willing to work with the south to provide them with a medium whereby they could redress their grievances, the war may have been avoided, but because of his aggressive nature with the handling of fort Sumter, he angered the south and they let the north know they were not taking it lying down.
You guys are making things too complicated. Simply put, the Constitution was rather vague whether seccession was cool or not, agreed. The South said yes, the North said no, and there was a big argument over that for four years. The North won the argument.
While I can sympathize with the want or need to boil down some things into their simplest elements, I don't think you can do that with the Civil War. The 4 year "argument" produced 630K deaths all because our founding fathers found it expedient to ignore the slavery question in order to form the union based on the Constitution.
This is a subject that will probably never be settled because people will always say that slavery was preserved in order to appease the south thus paving way for ratification of the Constitution. therefore the War of the Rebellion was inevitable. I don't believe it was. I think that if they had really worked at it, the problem could have been solved back in 1789.
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