And secession was over what? Slavery. Pure and simple. You can read the stump speeches of the Confederate politicians, the editorials of their newspapers, and most importantly the resolutions of secession of each of the Confederate states - slavery. Go to the original source documents. *They* said it was about slavery.
“And secession was over what? Slavery. Pure and simple.”
If the South was fighting for slavery, who was fighting against slavery?
Everyone points to those speeches and documents, brought by the Southern societal elite and conclude it was only about slavery, dismissing all the other evidence that points to freedom to make their own choices; which slavery just happened to be the immediate point of contention.
It is ridiculous to think that tens of thousands of men would force march to battle to fight for something they had no share in.
If it wasn’t slavery, it could have been something else; chiefly that the north and south were two different peoples that didn’t have a lot in common.
Read the Corwin Amendment. That alone proves it was not about slavery.
Secession was not over slavery but what the Federal Government was doing. It is easy to come to that conclusion because it was an issue even before the states ratified the Constitution in 1786. It had more to do with the perceived power grab by the Federalists against the Statists. Had Lincoln not one, a plan was ready to be taken to overturn at the last 30 years of laws Congress, who was majority made of the Northerners or those that leaned in the direction of the North.
Think about this, if the Southern democrats had done what the modern democrats had done today, then the Civil War would only have been postponed.
Again the Civil War was over States’ Rights not slavery. The industry of slavery was the major industry of the time. It was an after thought to the Civil War, meaning it didn’t even occur to politicians until at least a year and a half into the war to free the slaves. You go to the original source documents, especially Lincoln’s thoughts on the matter. Lincoln says it himself the war was not about slavery and it was a by product of the war not the reason for it.
Correct.
The democrats seceded from the Union rather than run a split government with the newly elected Republicans.
The Republicans had the Presidency for the first time, and the House by a slim majority.
The democrats held the Senate and controlled the Judiciary.
The democrats would not tolerate even an ounce of compromise - they chose to initiate a bloody civil war.