Being one who definitely thinks that our Civil War was an unnecessary loss of life and property, I have finally figured out how the South could have averted war, and stopped it in its tracks.
They could have agreed to abide by the constitution.
This is from the 1860 Republican platform. It referred primarily to the Fugitive Slave Act - a legally enacted law upheld by the courts. Now lecture me about the importance of abiding by the Constitution.
tpaine, the South did abide by the Constitution (althought I know you have been taught otherwise), it was the North that didn't respect the Constitution.
Next time you find some new state quarters, notice that all the original 13 colonies have statehood dates of 1787, EXCEPT N. Carolina and Rhode Island which are 1788 and 1789 respectively. Now can you tell me what status these territories were during this interim times? I do assume you knew this right?
Well, I'll tell you just in case. They existed as sovereign countries (like France, Germany, England, etc). AND, if you will read the ratifying resolutions of EACH and EVERY state when they agreed to ratifying the constitution, they ALL WITHOUT EXCEPTION RESERVED THEIR SOVEREIGNTY with the clear intent that if they didn't like being part of the UNION, that they reserved the right to withdraw from it.
Now people like Story, Webster, Lodge, and others can twist this around all they want (focusing on the one word 'perpetual'), but it doesn't change the intentions of these states at this time.
Just like the North refused to honor the findings of the SCOTUS in the Dred Scott decision (because they claimed most of the judges were biased to the South), I as a Southerner refuse to accept the validity of the Texas vs White case where the justices were hand picked Republicans and the decision preordained. However, the central pleading of this case was not the question of whether or not a state had the right to secede.
Here is what Chase said regarding the question of secession.
'We are very sensible of the magnitude and importance of this question, of the interest it excites, and of the difficulty, not to say impossibility, of so disposing of it as to satisfy the conflicting judgments of men equally enlightened, equally upright, and equally patriotic. But we meet it in the case, and we must determine it in the exercise of our best judgment, under the guidance of the Constitution alone.'