The questions and the answers regarding the legality and nation impact of secession were simple ones for President Lincoln: Can a state simply vote itself out of the union of states called the United States whenever it so desires? If so, isn’t that a direct threat to the national existence and territorial integrity of the nation? Lincoln believed that if secession was allowed to stand, it would ultimately destroy the United States as a nation. It would turn us into a Europe with each state being an individual country. Many people agreed with him.
And, why did the Southern states secede? Was it because Lincoln threatened to abolish slavery in the South? No. It was because Lincoln believed slavery was morally wrong, and therefore should be limited to where it already existed. In other words, because he believed slavery was a moral wrong, he wanted the new states that would be formed out of the territories, to be “free” states - thus limiting slavery to the Southern states.
The Southern slave owners wanted slavery to spread to at least some of the new states for their system’s economic growth. If Lincoln were elected, they reasoned, he might stop this from happening and thus push the balance of power in Congress in favor of the “free” states. They saw this as a direct threat to their economic, political, and social way of life. Therefore, they seceeded.
My point? Lincoln did what he believed had to be done to rescue the nation from a very real and direct threat to it’s national existence. You can agree or disagree with him, but you must admit it was a major crisis for the country. He acted on what he believed to be the best recourse for protecting the country. If you believed secession were illegal and a threat to our country, you probably would have done what Lincoln felt he had no choice but to do. It was South Carolina that ultimately forced the issue into a shooting war at Ft. Sumpter.
THIS former Ohioan, whose great-grandfather served with the 80th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in Tennessee, Mississippi and even came through Georgia with Sherman, has come to believe that the wrong side won that sad and deadly internecine conflict (which, BTW, was NOT about slavery). The outcome only served to entrench a bloated and tyrannical federal government on ALL the citizens here — black and white — and damaged the Constitution in ways that are only now becoming manifest. My wife’s great-grandfather also served in the Union Army.
(Anyone interested in knowing just WHAT it was about can visit http://reformed-theology.org/realaudio/ and scroll down to the 4 part series beginning with “The Causes of the War for Southern Independence.”)
Having said that, I find it incredibly interesting that many of the former slaves who went north eventually crossed over into Canada. If the North was so anxious to see these folks “freed,” why did they shuttle them off to Canada? I doubt that slave bounty hunters were safely active in those northern border states.
More liberal hypocrisy?
That was an excellent post.