On the American civil war

From deadpresidents on tumblr.

anonymous asked:

I have a question that I know is not easy to answer but I was upset that someone mentioned the Civil War wasn't about slavery; it was about "state's rights". Is that true? Or are we both wrong? What were the causes of the U.S. Civil War.

No, that’s easy to answer. Anyone who says “the Civil War wasn’t about slavery” is either dead wrong or trying to be too smart for the room by using the “it was about States’ rights” argument.

Yes, it was about States’ rights – the right of states to continue, protect, and hopefully expand slavery. If slavery had never existed, you can be sure that the states that seceded to form the Confederacy wouldn’t have gone to war over internal improvements. Sure, South Carolina made some noise about nullification of tariffs during the Jacksonian era, but that’s a much different level of opposition than actual secession, militarization, and actual war.

One question I always want to ask of people who argue that the Civil War was fought over States’ rights instead of slavery is this: if that is true, why was it that ONLY slave states seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy? Was that just a coincidence? Was it simply a geographic anomaly? No, of course not. The Civil War was about slavery.

And we don’t really have to look much further than the formal “Declaration of Causes” which were issued by the individual states of the Confederacy announcing their secession after they officially severed relations with the United States. Most of the states of Confederacy made it clear that slavery was the reason for their secession. A perfect example is Mississippi – the home state of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis – which released a Declaration of Cause following their secession and after an opening sentence immediately stated, “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest of the world.” That’s the second sentence of their formal secession declaration! Similar statements were included in the declarations of other Confederate states, so there’s really not even much room for debate on the issue.

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