“... it was an issue of the southern states attempting to exert their sovereignty as states against increasing federal encroachment.”
I am always amused by this argument.
This position attempts to sanitize and cloak this fact: that southern states maintained owning another human being was not a violation of the rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution.
Excuse me, but aren’t you the one sanitizing history? Ownership of slaves was not illegal under the US Constitution at the time of the Civil War.
“... it was an issue of the southern states attempting to exert their sovereignty as states against increasing federal encroachment.”
I am always amused by this argument.
I too am amused. The follow on question is: Over what issue were the “southern states attempting to exert their sovereignty as states against increasing federal encroachment?” Slavery!
Then why did some of the framers/founders own slaves?
Bassett, Blair, Blount, Butler, Carroll, Jenifer, Jefferson, Mason, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Rutledge, Spaight, and Washington. Madison also owned slaves, as did Franklin,