The REAL cause of the Civil War.

Vanity | 1957 | Ayn Rand

[DiogenesLamp]

For some time I have wondered how to explain the cause of the Civil War in simple terms that are easy to understand. I now see that Ayn Rand did it years ago. Laws passed by a Northern controlled Congress routed all the money produced by the South into Northern "elite" pockets.

[x]

Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

[DiogenesLamp]

Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

I stand corrected, but clearly "necessity" is not mentioned in the thesis sentence.

"That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Also, who gets to define what is a "necessity"? As i've pointed out, the Canadians, living under the exact same rules as the other colonies, did not regard it as a "necessity" to leave.

Even if you accept the argument that "necessity" is required, when the people who decide what is a "necessity" are the people doing the seceding, you are right back to "it's up to the people to decide for themselves."

"Necessity" is in the eye of the beholder.

[x]

You do realize that whoever "the beholder" is, it isn't the person who makes the claim, don't you? The world beheld and decided the Confederate case wasn't strong enough or just enough to justify secession.

[BroJoeK]

"...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..."

The key word here is "destructive", which matches well with similar words throughout the DOI --

1. "long train of abuses and usurpations"

2. "a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism."

3. "a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, "

4. "all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States."

5. "such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government."

6. "He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us."

7. "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people."

8. "He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny..."

9. "In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury."

10. "A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

11. "We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends."

Nothing remotely resembling such necessities existed in 1860, nor was there mutual consent such as achieved in 1788.