Many people think about the south wanting to secede and what their opinions on it are. I personally think that the south wanting to secede was not a good idea. It would have completely destroyed the bond between the north and south and made their problems worse. In June of 1858, Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
The Southern states thought that seceding from the North was the only solution to their problems. Lincoln said, “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free,” and he was right about that. The north wanting to get rid of slaves and the south wanting to keep them caused many problems between the two. Their disagreement on slaves made their lives living together very
…show more content…
The south wanting to secede would have caused the economic and government to weaken significantly. Secession of the South was going to cause the United States to fall apart and destroy the largest democracy in the world. Seceding would have cause the Northern and Southern states to argue constantly.
At the time of them wanting to secede, the Southern states were very successful in agriculture. They thought that they could make their money just from the slaves working on their crops and could eventually expand to make their crop space larger. The Confederacy would give the power to the State instead of the Federal Government. Having the Confederates not run on a central document, was like anarchy or lawlessness. Secession would have caused more problems in the Confederacy than what they already had.
“It will become all one thing or all the other.” Lincoln says that he expects the Union to decide on having slaves, or not having slaves. He wants the Union to decide on one thing. But the Southern states wanting slaves, and the Northern states wanting slaves freed, is mostly what caused them arguing. The North and South benefit from each other and it would have not been smart to secede because they both need supplies and food from each
After some evaluation on whether or not to stay in the Union, which would only turn out negative for both parts of the country, the South would have to choose between taking away slavery, or breaking off from the Union. Splitting off from the country for both the South and North would come to a negative result. For the South, it would mean no longer paying excessive taxes to the North and being able to keep their crops and harvest them themselves, but would also result in no protection from what the North could possibly bring onto them, such as a war, or any other nation. For the North, though, if they were to disengage the South from the Union, the Union would be seen as not inhibiting the love that was publicly displayed and not having love for the second half of the country-the South. The two proposals that were discussed in full was either separating and parting in peace, or to merely try and get along with each other. The second decision was inhabited, but later on, in 1861, the Civil War took place and lasted for approximately four years.
While admitting that he had no right to interfere with the institution of Slavery, Abraham Lincoln urged for the establishment of better strategies of handling the issue and solving the primary differences between the regions without necessarily having to secede. He believed that while different States had the rights to manage their affairs and recruit their army, seceding from the Union was not an
Southern states left the Union because they thought they had more power than the Federal Government. “Many Southerners favored secession as part of the idea that the states have rights and powers, which the federal government cannot legally deny”(Doc 5). This means that Southerners thought that the Federal Government could not deny their right to have slavery so they left. Southern states left the Union because Abraham Lincoln banned slavery and it was their only way to make a
The South should have never seceded because it would unravel the country. The South wanted to secede because they disagreed over state rights and slavery. The South shouldn’t have succeeded because the states can’t physically separate to make a new country, secession is unlawful, and it will lead to anarchy. The North was trying to preserve the Union
Abraham Lincoln's victory alarmed many white southerners because this meant that their future was now in the hands of a political party that was primarily against their region's personal values and interests. The people that wanted the South to secede from the Union had their reasons to do so. They were worried that Lincoln's election might lead to future Republican administrations interfering with slavery in the states. In the Deep South, southerners feared that they might become a sticking minority in a nation that was overrun by their political opposites. With this in mind, they instead seceded from the Union and saved slavery within their states.
One reason for the South’s secession was because it was the best option for it. The South felt like it was being ruled by the North. The South had created the Fugitive Slave Act which made it so that fugitive slaves did not have the right to trial. With the new liberty laws that the North created, the Fugitive Slave Law was counteracted. Another reason the South believed secession was the best option was because it believed that it was self-determination which was in the Constitution.
It then also sparked four more states to secede which included, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The four states that seceded last believed that Lincoln was not a right fit for the United States and believed he made the wrong call on slavery in the new states. These states feared that if new states were being added to the union as free states that soon, they would try to take slavery away from the states that already had slavery in their states. The states that seceded wanted to be on their own and wanted their own functioning government because they had disagreed with the one they had. However, their intention were to keep slavery.
This shows that South Carolina had the right to secede because it was a sovereign state. It also shows how the South should have had the right to decide whether they would want to secede from the country or not. Another example is that when the Southern states joined the Union, it was voluntarily (Appleby et.al 556). “Nowhere in the Constitution is there any mention of the union of the states being permanent.” (http:/civilwar.bluegrass.net). This shows that they should have the right to leave the Union if they choose to. They had this right because the South had no bind with the Union stating that they had to stay except for the United States constitution in which the North had already violated. Even though the United States constitution was what they looked at as a contract, the Union already desecrated its’ terms before this dispute. It also shows how the right was their own and the government could not control their choices in staying or not. These reasons and examples show how the South had to right to secede because of various reasons regarding the political state the government was in.
Tensions between the North and South had grown steadily since the anti slavery movement in 1830. Several compromises between the North and South regarding slavery had been passed such as the Nebraska-Kansas and the Missouri act; but this did little to relieve the strain. The election of President Lincoln in 1861 proved to be the boiling point for the South, and secession followed. This eventually sparked the civil war; which was viewed differently by the North and the South. The Northern goal was to keep the Union intact while the Southern goal was to separate from the Union. Southern leaders gave convincing arguments to justify secession. Exploring documents from South Carolina’s secession ordinance and a speech from the Georgia
First off, the way they declared secession and proceeded to do so was illegal. To begin with everyday we recite the pledge of allegiance where it states, “one nation, indivisible”. Those southerners recited the same pledge we did and they recited themselves that this union is indivisible. Next, under the constitution of the United States of America secession was and always will be considered illegal because of Article 10 Section 1. In this part of the constitution it was illustrated that, “No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation….”. The southern states obviously did not follow that and violated the constitution they agreed to abide by themselves. When they concurred to join the Union they agreed to join an indivisible nation. Nowhere could they make a complaint worthy enough to try to separate for the states that they agreed to join, but of course they tried to with the controversial subject of slavery.
Southern political leaders became convinced that the institution of slavery was under attack by the North, especially by Lincoln and the Republican party. The southern states did not want Abraham Lincoln to win the Election of 1860. Lincoln was a Republican and the Republican Party opposed slavery. Lincoln never said he wanted to end slavery in the South and did not believe anyone had the right to do so, yet he did not want to see slavery spread to other parts of the United States. Unless slavery could spread, the slave population in the South would become too large. In time, blacks and whites would battle for control where one or the other would be destroyed. This idea of leaving the Union split North and South just as much as slavery. Southerners claimed they had the right to secede peacefully. Northerners disagreed saying that secession was treason and that it would lead to civil war. Debates grew over slavery between the North and South but a compromise wad necessary for advancing.
Seceding is an unconstitutional principle, fully prohibited by the government. If the people had a problem with the way the president ruled or the laws the government had, they must calmly complain or just leave the country. They could not separate their section from the states. Had Lincoln understood their side and let them secede, he would be entirely disregarding the Constitution’s rule altogether, which is not something Lincoln would ever want to do or was capable of. His refusal to let the South secede may have upset the people of the area, but it would’ve upset the country even more had he allowed them to separate. It would’ve shown the rest of the country that the Constitution was something that could be ignored or just didn’t matter. This was simply not the case. If one
First, our Declaration of Independence states “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government." The Confederate States defended their decision to secede by using the Due Process Clause of the 5th amendment, which stated that no person “shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”
The controversy over slaves ultimately led to the secession. Abraham Lincoln thinks slavery is wrong and he wants to stop it from spreading. Earlier, he had warned that slavery could separate a nation. In the 1860 election Lincoln is elected, but southerners are worried he will end slavery forever. Southern states start to secede because they are worried. First South Carolina succeeds, then North, Texas, and then Florida too. They give themselves a new name called the Confederate States of America. (Wise...)
The secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860, by a vote of 169-0 was a response to the election of Abraham Lincoln of 1860. Lincoln perceived as an abolitionist wanted to contain slavery rather than ending it. The majority party above the Mason-Dixon line were Republicans and below were primarily Democrats and Republicans were viewed as abolitionists. The election of a Republican threatened the South’s status quo. The primary catalyst for secession was based on slavery. Different social cultures and political beliefs developed due to the South’s intimate and reliant relationship on slavery. Southern whites feared the end of slavery and this paranoia was shared among plantation slave owners and white Yeoman farmers. Southern whites felt that the North were threatening the supposed tranquility of the South. The South’s agrarian economy, honor, and independence were believed to be in danger. Slavery was intertwined with the South’s social, cultural, and economic makeup. As a result of slavery, the South developed a paternalistic culture and racial ideology of white supremacy. The perceived notion that the North was influencing it’s political and social beliefs on the South lead them to believe that secession was the only act of self-preservation. The growing differences between the South and North made it difficult to negotiate. This fear was exaggerated and accelerated the South’s eventual implosion. The South believed that without slavery it would self-destruct and