What was the war actually over?

All the school ever wanted to teach was slavery this, slavery that! And I'm sick of getting that answer. So I figured I would find somewhere there was experts on this kinda thing. What was the war fought over? What did each side fight for?

The Deep South seceded in order to protect the institution the slavery. There's no getting around it.

R

Without sounding like a broken record, what you say is true, BUT not the whole truth. There were many reasons the war was fought with slavery being in the top 2

I disagree. Without slavery, there would have been no secession, and without secession, no war. There just was no issue that would have caused secession by a section of the nation. Slavery was the divisive issue that popped up over and over again from the founding of the US.

R

Lincoln was a Northern Extremist because he Forced the Southern States to Pay(at the time) illegal Federal Taxes. Specifically The worst of these Taxes was the Cotton Tax, The Cotton Industry(at the time) was the South's only Major Industry that the Northern States didn't have, And I order to help their Industry strong and fast growing the Southern States had put very little Taxes on the Trade, The North However Violated the Constitution by Initiating a Federal Cotton Tax on the Cotton Industry without any of the State's Permission, This Normally wouldn't have been a big deal, except for the fact that this Tax was 3 times larger then the Income Tax(of the time), It Nearly Crippled the Cotton Industry as a Result, What made it worse was all of the Farmers in the South who many were already barely making it by as is, were suddenly faced with massive Losses and an Inability to Maintain their Livelihoods.

He even Temporarily Suspended Rights to Habeas Corpus. He had people who opposed him Arrested, and Thrown in Jail, without Trial or even telling them what they had been charged with!

And I know People will bring up things like Fort Sumpter to try and make it sound like the Confederates were the Aggressors, when In Reality at that Time the southern states had already Seceded from the Union, which meant that the Fort was then in Confederate Territory, Which from the Confederate Perspective the Fort was being occupied by Foreign Troops in Confederate Territory.
This would be like if the United States had a Base in Canada without the Canadians Permission, If we did that the Canadians would have the Authority to force us to leave, and the same goes for Fort Sumpter!
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He was also very racist both towards black people, and American Indians! He said if he could free some slaves and keep others in slavery to preserve the Union he would do so, he also ordered the largest mass execution in our history and ran partly on his reputation as an Indian killer
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The South fought for their Rights, their Rights to Secede, and their Rights to Reject Federal Taxation!
The Union Violated the Constitution and Violated the Rights of the States!
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Also, While I admit that Slavery was an Issue during the War, it was only a Small one(of many Issues), Most people didn't even own slaves(North or South), it was something mostly only the Rich could afford, and most people who fought during the war were the poor/Middle class(of the time), so why would they fight for a institution that they weren't even apart of?
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Also, The Confederacy had the Right to Secede

Seems to me Lincoln wanted to be a a**hole!

Do you seriously expect to be taken seriously? How about cracking open a history book for a change? The cotton states seceded BEFORE Lincoln was inaugurated. Good gosh, are you trying to make southerners look like a bunch of fools?

The rest of the hogwash is more of the same.

Your taxation argument is simply absurd. There are so many things wrong there it's hard to decide where to begin.

Yes, the Deep South had seceded but that doesn't make secession legal. Just because they thought so doesn't make it so. Again, your Canada/US argument doesn't make sense.

The South fought for their rights, it's true; the right to keep and own slaves. In their own secession documents which explain why they were leaving the Union, the Deep South explicitly stated that they left in order to protect slavery.

No offense but I think you need to read some books on what was going on leading up to the war and the cultures of the North and South.

R

This is not my words!! It's something I found!! And what doesn't make sense about the US/Canada argument? If we went into Canada trying to overrun, They wouldn't go for it!!

Well

The biggest problem with your analogy is that the US and Canada are two different nations. By just about any measure, the South was a section in rebellion, not a sovereign nation since unilateral secession was illegal.

R

Look, I didn't come here saying I was the smartest and know the most about the Civil War, I'm here to learn (Hint's the question!!). Good Lord!!

And there's nothing wrong with that but, let's face it, the argument you used at the start was not built on a solid foundation. It may have been more prudent to ask questions rather that throwing that argument out the way you did. And throwing out the line "Seems to me Lincoln wanted to be a a**hole!" was so over the top as to be ludicrous. Regardless, welcome to the site.

R

If you're interested in learning, I highly suggest some real history books. Stay away from Thomas DiLiarenzo and the Kennedy Klowns. That stuff will warp your mind. Whoever told you the stuff you posted lied to you grievously.

Oh, yes, welcome to the forum.

Thank y'all! And the reason I put that up here was because I ask a question looking for answers and get short answers or this "Vinegar or tomato based BBQ sauce... ". So I figured I would just quickly find something and post it trying to get some ACTUAL answers with some facts or anything behind it!

Sounds like a simple question, right? If you want to be really pedantic, the war was, in its first two years, solely about secession with the confederacy fighting to sustain it and the Federals fighting to overturn it.

But, if you want to look beyond the immediate, look at why the confederates seceded. They were very clear about what their aim was. They were seceding to protect slavery. How do we know this? They told us. Mississippi said, "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery." Their objective was to achieve their independence in order to preserve slavery from what they considered to be a threat to its existence. So while the war was about Union, it was also about slavery. In the first two years of the war, it was about slavery on the part of the confederacy but not the Federals. In the last half of the war, though, it was about both Union and slavery for both sides, because in the last half of the war the Federals added the destruction of slavery as one of their war objectives.