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To: Rockingham
The Morrill Tariff had been bottled up in the Senate by Southern states and would not have passed except for secession. Blaming secession on the Morrill Tariff confuses cause and effect.

That is unrealistic. The Southern states were barely able to hold back such measures, but they realized that inevitably it was futile.

Go read the articles of secession by the Southern states. They do not refer to tariffs but repeatedly refer to the protection of slavery as the reason for secession.

3 or 4 do. But they also include economic arguments, and most of the states didn't even issue such documents.

It has become a propaganda trick to claim that the 3 or 4 (depending on how you count it) that specifically mention slavery as a reason for secession, speak for all 11 states, most of which don't cite it as justification.

"Read the documents" these people put out, as if they would just come out and tell the North "We are taking our money back out of your pockets!"

Most people don't want to attract attention to the fact they would be putting a serious hurt on people by stopping the money flow. Better to misdirect them with some "Look Squirrel!!!"

With some justification, slaveholders feared that abolitionist agitations would inspire slaves to flee North or to revolt.

They really were worried about slave revolts. John Brown probably did a lot to convince people secession was necessary.

322 posted on 03/25/2026 11:17:03 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: DiogenesLamp

With time, a sense of realism, and flexibility, the South could have defused the time bomb of slavery by easing conditions and working toward emancipation. Sadly, the slaveholder class chose secession, thinking that it would be easy to found a new nation.


324 posted on 03/25/2026 12:02:22 PM PDT by Rockingham
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To: DiogenesLamp
Slavery was the most widely and consistently cited reason for secession. This is evident from the articles of secession and from various contemporary documents and sources, such as debates in the legislature and convention and newspaper editorials and accounts.

Long before John Brown, the Denmark Vesey conspiracy and Nat Turner's rebellion demonstrated that violent slave revolts were a tangible risk. In addition, poisoning and violent assaults by slaves were feared by the South's slaveholders. John Brown's attack at Harper's Ferry hit a raw nerve.

329 posted on 03/25/2026 5:45:48 PM PDT by Rockingham
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