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What's with this "the South wanted to secede peacefully and those evil, evil northerners forced them to attack" bull? I'm not well versed i the history of America, but apparently neither are you.
Apparently you also love slavery.
And apparently people who think that the Civil War was only fought over slavery are the same people who feel that President Clinton had anything to do with the economy boom during the '90s. They focus on one thing, and not on the other 99 items that lead up to the war. Such as President Lincoln promising to create an amendment securing the operation of slavery for as long as the south would need it.
QUOTE("President Lincoln Inaugural Address")
Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that—
I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. 3
Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations and had never recanted them; and more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read:
Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.
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SourceThe main issues of the Civil War were trade tariffs (forcing the South to pay 3 and/or 4 times as much for items from Europe only so the American versions would be cheaper). The Civil War almost started 30 years earlier, but was averted by a swift-thinking congress.
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When South Carolina passed the Ordinance of Nullification in November 1832, refusing to collect the tariff and threatening to withdraw from the Union, Jackson ordered federal troops to Charleston. A secession crisis was averted when Congress revised the Tariff of Abominations in February 1833.
Slavery only became an issue during the 'panics' of 1837 and 1857, both of which devastated Northern industrial centers, but left the Southern agricultural economy practically untouched. See, those who were against slavery tried to use this against the plantation owners, and is what caused it to even become something to discuss. Until then, slavery had been viewed similar as to how the nation (as a whole, not necessarily what you or I think, but generally speaking) views abortion: as a necessary evil. Slavery, for the continual survival of the agricultural trade, and abortion to help stem unwanted pregnancies. Both sides of both conflicts had good reason for wanting, or not wanting, these practices, and both sides often used 'class' as a weapon against the other.
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Southern cotton sold abroad totaled 57% of all American exports before the war. The Panic of 1857 devastated the North and left the South virtually untouched. The clash of a wealthy, agricultural South and a poorer, industrial North was intensified by abolitionists who were not above using class struggle to further their cause.
And, in case you are still thinking that the South 'loved' slavery:
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Southerners abolished the African slave trade in the Confederate Constitution.
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Source for last 3 quotesNow, I'm not for slavery. Not at all. It needed to go, and was in a steady decline before and during the war -- but the fact remains that slavery was only one, and if you look at the congressional transcripts leading up to the war it was a minor, reason that South Carolina gave the Federal Government the middle finger, and other states joined us not long after.
A few more 'fun facts' about the leaders of the Civil War.
General Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson both freed their slaves six months before the War began.
It was legal to have slaves within the city limits of Washington DC, and General Grant kept his until the 13th Amendment of the Constitution was passed, forcing him to free them.
Stonewall Jackson broke a law and almost was arrested multiple times for teaching freed blacks to read and write.
Those facts do not mean anything in and of themselves -- but your actions speak louder than your words.
As for Vermont seceeding, I don't buy it. Talk doesn't mean anything, and I don't believe they have the spine or guts to actually do it. I can see Texas pulling it off. We in South Carolina have a history of doing so (lol), but I feel at the moment we would not do so again unless we were assured that other states would follow to back us up. Again, this is where Texas would come in, and probably Louisiana and Alabama. The four of us have always been allies on most issues.
Do I see it happening soon? No, I don't. But if history has taught us anything, it is that it repeats. And our current national situation is very, very similar to the climate during the early 1850s.
EDIT: I corrected a few mis-placed words and grammer corrections post-type.