Lincoln showed his gift as a litigator in the July 4th address, though it should be noted that his scruples did not stop him from clearly violating the Constitution when he suspended habeas corpus in and His argument also rejects the suggestion of people like Calhoun that, if states can change the Constitution under Article V by democratic vote, they can agree to a state leaving the Union.
The South did in fact secede because it was unwilling to accept decisions by a majority in Congress. Moreover, the critical passage of the Constitution may be more important than the status of the states when independence was declared. After the Constitution was ratified, a new government was formed by the consent of the states that clearly established a single national government.
While, as Lincoln noted, the states possessed powers not expressly given to the federal government, the federal government had sole power over the defense of its territory and maintenance of the Union. Citizens under the Constitution were guaranteed free travel and interstate commerce.
Therefore it is in conflict to suggest that citizens could find themselves separated from the country as a whole by a seceding state. Moreover, while neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution says states can not secede, they also do not guarantee states such a right nor refer to the states as sovereign entities.
A clearly better argument could be made for a duly enacted amendment to the Constitution that would allow secession. In such a case, Lincoln would clearly have been warring against the democratic process he claimed to defend. Neither side, in my view, had an overwhelming argument. Faced with ambiguous founding and constitutional documents, the spirit of the language clearly supported the view that the original states formed a union and did not retain the sovereign authority to secede from that union.
Of course, a rebellion is ultimately a contest of arms rather than arguments, and to the victor goes the argument. Thus, 15 states from Alaska to Colorado to Washington entered in the full understanding that this was the view of the Union. There remains a separate guarantee that runs from the federal government directly to each American citizen.
People now identified themselves as Americans and Virginians. While the South had a plausible legal claim in the 19th century, there is no plausible argument in the 21st century. That argument was answered by Lincoln on July 4, , and more decisively at Appomattox Court House on April 9, He teaches at George Washington University. Secession fever revisited We can take an honest look at history, or just revise it to make it more palatable.
Try this version of history: years ago this spring, North Carolina and Tennessee became the final two Southern states to secede illegally from the sacred American Union in order to keep 4 million blacks in perpetual bondage. The Union was understandably prepared to fight for its own existence. Or should the scenario read this way? The Confederacy was understandably prepared to fight for its own freedom.
Which version is true? And which is myth? Although the Civil War sesquicentennial is only a few months old, questions like this, which most serious readers believed had been asked and answered 50—if not —years ago, are resurfacing with surprising frequency. So-called Southern heritage Web sites are ablaze with alternative explanations for secession that make such scant mention of chattel slavery that the modern observer might think shackled plantation laborers were dues-paying members of the AFL-CIO.
He is right. Many of these dusty records have been digitized and made available online—discrediting this fairy tale once and for all. Consider these excerpts. There is no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union. The whitewash worked in —but does that mean that it should be taken seriously today?
Keeping the focus on battlefield re-enactments, regional pride and uncritical celebration took the spotlight off the real cause of the war, and its potential inspiration to modern freedom marchers and their sympathizers. Some members of the national centennial commission actually argued against staging a th anniversary commemoration of emancipation at the Lincoln Memorial.
In a way, it is more difficult to understand why so much space is again being devoted to this debate. Fifty years have passed since the centennial. The nation has been vastly transformed by legislation and attitude. Fifty years from now, Americans will either celebrate the honesty that animated the Civil War sesquicentennial, or subject it to the same criticisms that have been leveled against the centennial celebrations of the s.
The choice is ours. Confederate leaders at this early date thought that the North would not fight to preserve the Union. But the provisional government nevertheless began purchasing arms and munitions, and seceded states started to equip and train their militias.
State and Confederate government authorities seized federal forts, arsenals, and other national property within their jurisdiction. Concerned about the loyalty of the border states of Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, and Kentucky, the new administration went so far as to offer the slave states an amendment to the Constitution that would guarantee slavery where it legally existed.
Lincoln himself in his inaugural address pledged only to hold federal property that was in the possession of the Union on March 4, The provisional Confederacy likewise sought vigorously to stimulate secession sentiment in the border states. Had all the border slave states thrown in their lot with one or the other government, there might not have been a war, or conversely, separation might well have become an accomplished fact.
As it was, however, the prompt action of the Lincoln administration after the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter secured Maryland and Delaware for the Union. Kentucky proclaimed its neutrality but eventually remained loyal to the Union. Once the war was joined, waves of patriotic sentiment swept over North and South. Vocal political opposition would exist on both sides, but it was never strong enough to overthrow either government.
Secession as revolution, an early theme in southern rhetoric, was not emphasized after the formation of the Confederacy. A nation could not have been formed, nor a war fought, if the states were wholly independent of any central authority. Behind it all, of course, was the unity of a minority geographical section defending a distinct set of institutions that were thought to be under attack.
The original federal Union that shared the exercise of power with the states strengthened the concept of secession. It also supplied a pretext for southern leaders to seize the initiative and form a separate nation. Eric Foner and John A.
Garraty, Editors. All rights reserved. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The Confederate States of America was a collection of 11 states that seceded from the United States in following the election of President Abraham Lincoln. Led by Jefferson Davis and existing from to , the Confederacy struggled for legitimacy and was never The election of was one of the most pivotal presidential elections in American history.
Crittenden introduced legislation aimed at resolving the looming secession crisis in the Deep South. From February until the end of the American Civil War in April , Andersonville, Georgia, served as the site of a notorious Confederate military prison. William Seward was a politician who served as governor of New York, as a U. South Carolina: In the state of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia.
Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation. Texas: The States… by solemn legislative enactments, have deliberately, directly or indirectly violated the 3rd clause of the 2nd section of the 4th article [the Fugitive Slave Clause] of the federal constitution, and laws passed in pursuance thereof; thereby annulling a material provision of the compact, designed by its framers to perpetuate the amity between the members of the confederacy and to secure the rights of the slave-holding States in their domestic institutions-- a provision founded in justice and wisdom, and without the enforcement of which the compact fails to accomplish the object of its creation.
Georgia: This is the party to whom the people of the North have committed the Government. They raised their standard in and were barely defeated. They entered the Presidential contest again in and succeeded. The prohibition of slavery in the Territories, hostility to it everywhere, the equality of the black and white races, disregard of all constitutional guarantees in its favor, were boldly proclaimed by its leaders and applauded by its followers.
South Carolina: On the 4th day of March next, this party will take possession of the Government. It has announced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory, that the judicial tribunals shall be made sectional, and that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States. Texas: And, finally, by the combined sectional vote of the seventeen non-slave-holding States, they have elected as president and vice-president of the whole confederacy two men whose chief claims to such high positions are their approval of these long continued wrongs, and their pledges to continue them to the final consummation of these schemes for the ruin of the slave-holding States.
Mississippi: It has recently obtained control of the Government, by the prosecution of its unhallowed schemes, and destroyed the last expectation of living together in friendship and brotherhood.
Utter subjugation awaits us in the Union, if we should consent longer to remain in it. Georgia: The material prosperity of the North was greatly dependent on the Federal Government; that of the South not at all. In the first years of the Republic the navigating, commercial, and manufacturing interests of the North began to seek profit and aggrandizement at the expense of the agricultural interests. The navigating interests begged for protection against foreign shipbuilders and against competition in the coasting trade.
Congress granted both requests, and by prohibitory acts gave an absolute monopoly of this business to each of their interests, which they enjoy without diminution to this day. The manufacturing interests entered into the same struggle early, and has clamored steadily for Government bounties and special favors.
This interest was confined mainly to the Eastern and Middle non-slave-holding States. Wielding these great States it held great power and influence, and its demands were in full proportion to its power. The legislature of South Carolina orders a convention to meet in Columbia on December 17 to decide whether or not the state should remain in the Union.
November 14, —Alexander Stephens, the future vice-president of the Confederacy, addresses the Georgia legislature and speaks out against secession. November 18, —The Georgia legislature authorizes one million dollars for weapon purchases.
In addition, he argues that secession is a fait accompli in South Carolina. December 4, —President Buchanan sends his State of the Union message to Congress, which attempts to appease both northerners and southerners. At the same time, Buchanan condemns secession and signals his intent to defend any federal forts in the South that come under attack. Both sides are displeased with the speech.
The same day, a group of South Carolina congressmen visits the White House and encourages Buchanan to relinquish federal property to their state. December 10, —South Carolina congressmen meet with Buchanan and promise that their forces will not attack U. December 13, —Twenty-three House members and seven Senators from the South make a public announcement calling for the creation of a Southern Confederacy. President Buchanan is stunned by the news. December 29, —Secretary of War John B.
December 30, —South Carolinians seize the Federal Arsenal at Charleston, making Fort Sumter the last piece of federal property in the state controlled by the United States government. Also, Buchanan places the onus of responsibility for solving the crisis on the legislative branch. January 9, —Mississippi secedes from the Union. The ship withdraws and sets course for New York. January 10, —Florida secedes from the Union.
Slemmer refuses repeated surrender demands from Florida authorities, allowing Fort Pickens to remain in Union hands for the duration of the war. The committee does not unanimously approve of the proposals. January 21, —Five senators from Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi bid farewell to their colleagues in the upper house. Among them is Senator Jefferson Davis, future president of the Confederacy.
February 4, —The convention of seceded states opens in Montgomery, Alabama as a Peace Convention called by Virginia gets underway in Washington. One of the delegates at the latter meeting is former president John Tyler. February 8, —Delegates in Montgomery adopt a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America. The document contains only a few variations from the U.
Constitution, among which are a clause protecting slavery and one that prohibits tariffs designed to protect domestic industry.
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