States rights? Bull Shit! For the southern states, it was out of the frying pan and into the fire. Ask yourselves, "Why did every state, which in their noble and honorable bid for independence and self-determination, and in their glorious effort to unchain themselves from the yoke of tyranny that was the North, .......pledge allegiance to the Confederacy?" Not one of those states stood on their own. What was it that attracted them to the Confederacy? What was the principle peculiar institution that was central to the "Confederacy"?........and which, in order to join the Confederacy, every state had to agree to?
I love my rebel brothers, and even though us pansy boys from the North kicked your F'ing a**es, you boys shouldn't be taking it out on Lincoln. And like Abe, I would never deprive our country of your Battle Flag. You should rather be taking it out on the very bad and evil people whose aim in life it was to rake in oodles of cash from the sweat of another mans labor. They used you as their cannon fodder. Lincoln knew exactly what those guys were up to (re: House Divided Speech). He details their blueprint. He knew full well that the Dred Scott Decision was a major stepping stone in the plans of Slave Power Aristocracy. That decision declared that a black was something less than a human and, in fact, had no standing to bring a case into court. The best you guys can come up with is that President Lincoln may have once said something like, "what about the tariffs/revenue?" Y'all still don't grasp the man's intellect and humor. Especially in light of the fact that half of his country was up and leaving merely due to he himself being elected. And don't forget that he had vowed, in his First Innaugural, to protect all federal property should the south leave. Bear in mind also that a fruitcake named Jeffy Davis, himself, made the decision that Anderson be ordered to "evacuate" Fort Sumter, in so many hours, or the bombardment would commence. And that bombardment did commence with the firing of so much of the artillery that been being maneuvered into position to surround Major Anderson in the preceding days and weeks. Any one who reads the whole story, with an open mind, knows that the Majors confusion over the apparent conflict in his directions were due to the meddling of Sec of State Seward.
Let us all remember that there are fine distinctions between the terms "the South" and "the Confederacy". The CSA put the South in a position of defending itself, hearth and home, in it's War against the North. No, slavery was not on life support. In no way, shape or form was it inevitably going to soon die out on its own. That was the cause of the Confederacy. The cause of the Confederacy was the continuation in perpetuity, and the expansion, of Slavery. Slavery was the very cornerstone of the Confederacy!! The causes of the Confederacy and the causes of Johnny Reb,.........we're not aligned. I will go so far as to say, that well by now, a true Southerner would be condemning the "Confederacy". End Rant.
What does that matter? If I want to leave an association which I feel no longer serves my interests, I don't have to justify my reasons. I can leave for any D@mn well reason that I please.
But *YOU* on the other hand, in laying your hands on me to keep me from leaving, *YOUR REASONS* D@mn well better be good ones.
The person who initiates the violence is the one who needs to explain their actions, not the person who wants to be left alone.
“I have long foreseen and often forewarned my countrymen of the now impending danger. This does not proceed soley from the claim on the part of Congress or the Territorial legislatures to exclude slavery from the Territories, nor from the efforts of different States to defeat the execution of the fugitive-slave law.
“All or any of these evils might have been endured by the South without danger to the Union (as others have been) in the hope that time and reflection might apply the remedy.
“The immediate peril arises not so much from these causes as from the fact that the incessant and violent agitation of the slavery question throughout the North for the last quarter of a century has at length produced its malign influence on the slaves and inspired them with vague notions of freedom. Hence a sense of security no longer exists around the family altar. This feeling of peace at home has given place to apprehensions of servile insurrections. Many a matron throughout the South retires at night in dread of what may befall herself and children before the morning. Should this apprehension of domestic danger, whether real or imaginary, extend and intensify itself until it shall pervade the masses of the Southern people, then disunion will become inevitable.
“Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and has been implanted in the heart of man by his Creator for the wisest purpose; and no political union, however fraught with blessings and benefits in all other respects, can long continue if the necessary consequence be to render the homes and firesides of nearly half the parties to it habitually and hopelessly insecure. Sooner or later the bonds of such a union must be severed. It is my conviction that this fatal period has not yet arrived, and my prayer to God is that He would preserve the Constitution and the Union throughout all generations. James Buchanan