It’s like Hotel California.
Once in, you can never leave."
GraceG: "Well yes, but the south did leave illegally, even if there was no set process to leave in the first place."
Anyone who's followed CW threads over the years knows by now there are two separate, almost unconnected issues:
- Declarations of secession -- were they constitutional & lawful?
- Civil War -- why did it start & last so long?
Revisionist propagandists for the Confederacy wish us to believe it's a simple matter of: Lincoln invaded the South because it declared secession from Big Government tyranny.
But the truth is more complicated.
The first question is: how can states constitutionally secede?
Well, there are at least two methods, the first suggested by Article 4, section 3 of the Constitution:
- "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union..."
Congress can vote states in, so Congress can logically vote them out again.
It can also impose reasonable requirements, such as voter referendums, legislative super-majorities, assumption of percentages of national debts & other obligations, etc.
The second method of constitutional secession is suggested by sergeantdave in post #64 above, and in Article 5 which provides for both amendments and a constitutional convention of the states.
Such a convention could abolish the United States and reform it as two or more independent, or semi-independent nations.
Literally, there are no restrictions on what such a convention might produce, provided it is then approved by 3/4 of the states.
Since nothing like that happened in 1861, even sympathetic northerners, such as Doughfaced Democrat President Buchanan, found Deep South declarations of secession unlawful.
Which brings us to the second issue: Civil War.
In early 1861, both Buchanan and Lincoln believed that while secession was unconstitutional, the Federal Government could do nothing to stop it.
So, as Lincoln announced in his First Inaugural (March 4, 1861) secessionists could not have a war unless they themselves started it.
Which they soon did.
In fact, every declaration of secession was immediately accompanied, and often preceded, by secessionists' provocations of war: seizing dozens of major Federal properties -- forts, ships, arsenals, mints, etc. -- threatening Union officials and firing on Union ships.
Simultaneously the Confederacy called up 100,000 troops at a time when the entire US army was circa 17,000 most scattered in small forts out west.
Then on April 12, 1861, the Confederacy started war by military assault on Union troops in Union Fort Sumter, resulting in two Union deaths.
Finally, on May 6, 1861 the Confederacy formally declared war on the United States, and simultaneously sent military aid to pro-Confederates fighting in Union Missouri.
All that happened before a single Confederate soldier was killed directly in battle with any Union force, and before any Union army invaded a single Confederate state.
So, Civil War came not because of secession, but rather because the Confederacy wanted it, no doubt to establish their own bonifides as a legit new country.
Further, the Civil War lasted roughly 1,460 days, and could have ended on any one of them, under much better terms than "unconditional surrender" and abolition, had the Confederacy sued for peace.
So, who is responsible for starting war, and it's continuation through four bloody years?
Clearly and solely, the Confederate leadership.
