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about time someone asked this question. the civil war was not about slavery. if it was, then abe could have bought all the slaves freedom and spent a whole lot less than it cost in money, men and material.
the fact was, was that the slavery issue was a issue unto itself and the civil war was about a states right to secede. since secession is not mentioned at all in the Constitution, then it is a states right to secede if they so wish to, with or without the feds permission.
Ridiculous logic. Nuclear bombs are not mentioned in the 2nd Amendment. So do you believe everyone should have the right to own them? Read the preamble folks:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The Preamble is mentioned in the Constitution. It's the first thing you read. The United States can't insure domestic tranquility, provide for common defen(s)e, promote general welfare, and secure the posterity of ALL, if people from seven states want to violate these principles. Also in the Constitution:
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
Think Confederates levied war against the United States? The U.S. government would have been well within its constitutional powers (as ratified by every state, Southern or not) to hang every Confederate who took up arms against the Union from the gallows.
@The OP: What about, instead of your proposal, trying to accelerate the pace of industrialization and industrial development in the South so that there would have been less of a (real and/or perceived) need for slavery in the South? This, in turn, might have eventually led to the abolition of slavery nationwide.
@The OP: What about, instead of your proposal, trying to accelerate the pace of industrialization and industrial development in the South so that there would have been less of a (real and/or perceived) need for slavery in the South? This, in turn, might have eventually led to the abolition of slavery nationwide.
Thoughts?
The trouble was that the crops the slaves tended Cotton, Rice, Tobacco and Indigo were crops that needed to be done by hand. Cotton would remain an hand picked crop well into the 20th Century.
The problem with the south was it had an viscous cycle of investing in slaves and land to the determent of everything else. This is why the south was industrially weak. Money that could have gone to build rail roads and industrial plants just gets tied up in slaves.
Slavery was almost pretty well abolished outside of the south by state laws in the north.
about time someone asked this question. the civil war was not about slavery. if it was, then abe could have bought all the slaves freedom and spent a whole lot less than it cost in money, men and material.
the fact was, was that the slavery issue was a issue unto itself and the civil war was about a states right to secede. since secession is not mentioned at all in the Constitution, then it is a states right to secede if they so wish to, with or without the feds permission.
But why did the states secede? Slavery is mentioned as a main cause in South Carolina's declaration of succession:
Way to powerful? When 30% of the U.S. population voluntarily surrenders their citizenship then that upsets the balance of power in Congress. Don't secede, you still have your voting power in both the House and Senate as well as sympathetic Supreme Court Justices. The Confederates were not for small government and states rights, they were for the opposite. They seceded because the U.S. Government didn't want to become TOO BIG (by enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act within unwilling Northern States) and the Confederate States of America didn't recognize the rights of their own states much less the rights of Union states.
If they did, they would have allowed East Tennessee and North Alabama to form their own Union states and would not have set up a separate Confederate State Government of Kentucky in Bowling Green. Kentucky had its own state government, thanks. You call it the "Confederate Cause"; shelling a military installation is called treason. There was no Northern "cause". The U.S. government was the U.S. government and Southerners tried to undermine the Constitution when they did not get their way.
This.
There was no buying the slaves off of the plantation. Slaveowners were psychotic sociopaths who owned other people. Their "enterprises" weren't the source of wealth, the slaves themselves were. The price of cotton could have plummeted just like the prices of tobacco, rice, and indigo did. Slaves could just be used to help build ships in Baltimore and smelt iron in Birmingham (as they were for example) whenever the plantation economy collapsed.
Slavery gave the opportunity for white males to become de facto feudal lords within an otherwise democratic political system and free market economy. As can be seen from the shambles of Latin American economies due to the legacy of the encomienda system, slavery was never about stimulating cyclical prosperity, like a capital investment would be. Slavery was about ego, domination, and power over others.
States have the right to secede from a union created voluntarily by the states. The founding fathers and the constitution dictated that most power to govern lies with the states, and that included the issue of slavery which was also enshrined in the constitution. It was up to the state to outlaw slavery, and I believe that could have occurred without a war or without our constitution being violated. Slavery was immoral and indefensible, and if owners were compensated, I believe eventually all states would voluntarily get rid of slavery over a period of time. No war, no violation of states rights, so everyone would get what they wanted. IMO the reason our government is the tyrannical corrupt monster it is today is because of the assumed right of the federal government to grab more power year after year following the victory of northern federalism at Appomattix in 1865. The reason that issues like abortion, gay marriage and affirmative action are being decided today by federal courts is because of this massive sprawling federal government, and that could never have been possible if the civil war had never occurred resulting in the yankee victory. The issues of state power vs federal power were never really resolved, and in recent years states rights is rising again. Do we need to have civil war part 2 before we respect our constitution?? People standing up for their rights are NOT traitors, they are patriots. Fort Sumpter was fired on because the federals continued to supply a military installation against the will of the soverign state of South Carolina. They violated South Carolinas territorial integrity, and they received just counteraction for their incursion.
States have the right to secede from a union created voluntarily by the states. The founding fathers and the constitution dictated that most power to govern lies with the states, and that included the issue of slavery which was also enshrined in the constitution. It was up to the state to outlaw slavery, and I believe that could have occurred without a war or without our constitution being violated. Slavery was immoral and indefensible, and if owners were compensated, I believe eventually all states would voluntarily get rid of slavery over a period of time. No war, no violation of states rights, so everyone would get what they wanted. IMO the reason our government is the tyrannical corrupt monster it is today is because of the assumed right of the federal government to grab more power year after year following the victory of northern federalism at Appomattix in 1865. The reason that issues like abortion, gay marriage and affirmative action are being decided today by federal courts is because of this massive sprawling federal government, and that could never have been possible if the civil war had never occurred resulting in the yankee victory. The issues of state power vs federal power were never really resolved, and in recent years states rights is rising again. Do we need to have civil war part 2 before we respect our constitution?? People standing up for their rights are NOT traitors, they are patriots. Fort Sumpter was fired on because the federals continued to supply a military installation against the will of the soverign state of South Carolina. They violated South Carolinas territorial integrity, and they received just counteraction for their incursion.
States rights my foot. States rights was the fig leaf the south tried to cover the issue of slavery with. The point of having an Strong Federal Government is that together we are far stronger than as separate states and in some things the States failed to protect the rights of others(namely Civil rights of African Americans and poor whites in the south). States do have an role but citizens of the US should also have rights that are available in all states.
Ridiculous logic. Nuclear bombs are not mentioned in the 2nd Amendment. So do you believe everyone should have the right to own them? Read the preamble folks:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The Preamble is mentioned in the Constitution. It's the first thing you read. The United States can't insure domestic tranquility, provide for common defen(s)e, promote general welfare, and secure the posterity of ALL, if people from seven states want to violate these principles. Also in the Constitution:
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
Think Confederates levied war against the United States? The U.S. government would have been well within its constitutional powers (as ratified by every state, Southern or not) to hang every Confederate who took up arms against the Union from the gallows.
actually, if you can afford to build one, to include all the research that goes with it, then yes I do.
the civil war was all about states rights and slavery was just a footnote. if slavery was the main issue, then abe could have bought all the slaves their freedom and made it so the civil war never happened.
if abe was so set against secession, then why did he allow WV secede from VA.?
it is still a state right to decide for themselves, and abe did not like that a state could choose for themselves. also, the winner of a war always writes what is written in the history books, and very rarely do the losers write anything at all.
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