So once again we get to hear from the people that think somehow fighting to keep slavery was a States right. That enslavement of other people was a right the States should be able to keep.
The southern states fought for their independence. To say that they fought to defend slavery would be saying that the northern states were fighting to end slavery, which is absolutely not the case whatsoever.
Complete and utter BULLSHIT. The South withdrew from the Union because OF SLAVERY. They claimed Lincoln would somehow magically abolish it. THAT was the entire reason for the war. The only State Right that they were worried about was the right to keep slaves.
You delusional idiots amaze me to no end.
Maybe you could point out the part of the US Constitution that prohibits the states that voluntarily joined the union from voluntarily leaving it, if that is their wish.
If not just shut up about it, unless you want to discuss something like Lincoln's violation of the US Constitution by suspending Habeas Corpus.
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Virginia proposed a requirement for a two-thirds majority to enact laws regulating commerce and levying tariffs, which were the chief revenue of the federal government. Virginia withdrew its amendment at the Convention in the interest of adopting the Constitution, but ratification was with the understanding that it could be rescinded if the powers granted the federal government were used to oppress, and that Virginia could them withdraw from the Union.
Let us not forget that there were at least 250,000 slaves held in the 19 Northern states that fought for the union, which were not freed during the war, but had to wait until the 13 amendment was ratified.
The war was really for empire on the side of the North and for independence on the side of the South.
The South knew that it was their import trade that drew from the peoples pockets sixty or seventy millions of dollars per annum, in the shape of duties, which were mainly expended in the North, and in the protection and encouragement of Northern interests. These were the reasons the people of the North did not wish the South to secede from the Union.
In December 1860, the Chicago Daily Times foretold the disaster that Southern free ports would bring to Northern commerce:
"In one single blow our foreign commerce must be reduced to less than one-half what it now is. Our coast wise trade would pass into other hands. One-half of our shipping would lie idle at our wharves. We would lose our trade with the South, with all its immense profits. Our manufactories would be in utter ruins. Let the South adopt the free-trade system, or that of a tariff for revenue, and these results would likely follow."
One more example would be the NY Times on March 22, 1861.
"At once shut down every Southern port, destroy its commerce and bring utter ruin on the Confederate States. It is apparent that the people of the principle seceding states are for commercial independence. They dream that the centers of traffic can be changed from the Northern to Southern ports...by a revenue system verging on free trade."
So, now maybe you can understand why we refer to the war as, The War of Northern Aggression.
Just in case you did not know, the vast majority of the farmers in the South never owned slaves, plowed their own fields, and fought against Northern aggression.
Also, part of our Southern heritage is the fact that our forefathers fought against Northern aggression when the North was forcing the South to pay for most of the Northern improvements, paid for by the federal government, via tariffs imposed upon the South.
As examples, in 1840 the South paid 84% of the tariffs, rising to 87% in 1860. The South paid 83% of the $13 million federal fishing bounties paid to New England fishermen, and also paid $35 million to Northern shipping interests which has a monopoly on shipping from Southern ports.
The South was paying tribute to the North, and the only way to stop it was to withdraw from the Union they had voluntary entered, with nothing included in the US Constitution to prevent such separation.
A great constitutional failure would be correct it that secession did not violate the US Constitution, while the suspension of Habeas Corpus did violate that document, as did the invasion of the South by the Northern armies.
In March 1861, over one hundred leading commercial importers in New York, and a similar group in Boston, informed the collector of customs that they would not pay duties on imported gods unless the same duties were collected at Southern ports. This was followed by a threat from New York to withdraw from the Union and establish a free-trade zone. Prior to these events, Lincoln's plan was to evacuate Fort Sumter and not precipitate a war, but now he determined to reinforce it rather than suffer prolonged economic disaster in a losing trade war. The reinforcement was met with force by the South, and the war was upon us.
