Why some groups opposed Mississippi’s secession was that those people didn’t believe that it was right to keep slaves, no one really minded it till after the American Civil War when people started to realize that it was wrong to have slaves and that they should let them go and live a equals,but Mississippi and a few other states didn’t like this idea. So they decided to try and become their own free country. People didn’t like the idea of them separating just so that they could keep their salve so they put it to a vote. It was the September elections where they allowed the delegates to join for this momentous transmission. The unionists won with 57 percent of the votes, they thought that that would ensure the separation would be voted down.
Many say that the South seceding was their own choice and that they failed to compromise with the North. The Southern states Seceded because of unfair treatment being forced upon them by the North.
The slaves states secede from the Union since the South thought Abraham Lincoln would try to end slavery. To many southerners, it seemed that the South no longer had a voice in the national government(textbook 500). The southern states secede from the Union since they felt they had no voice in their own country anymore. The South thinks Abraham Lincoln was trying to take slavery away from them. Therefore, Many southerners favored secession as part of the idea that the states have rights and powers which the federal government cannot legally deny(Document 5). Many southerners favored secession as part of the idea that the states have rights and powers which the federal government cannot legally deny(Document 5) The South believed that Abraham Lincoln was against slavery which lead to the states
In my initial post, I also discussed the economic factor for the Southern States seceding from the Union; however, the Mississippi Declaration of Secession says two main factors for the state decision of seceding from the Union than the economic factor. Historians do not use a small piece of evidence to decide what happened, they gather facts to reconstruct the events that have to transpire, and the same should be done when analyzing a primary document. On the Mississippi Declaration of Secession also states, “It has given indubitable evidence of its design to ruin our agriculture, to prostrate our industrial pursuits and to destroy our social system. It knows no relenting or hesitation in its purposes; it stops not in its march of aggression
Southern states left the Union because they thought they had more power than the Federal Government. “Many Southerners favored secession as part of the idea that the states have rights and powers, which the federal government cannot legally deny”(Doc 5). This means that Southerners thought that the Federal Government could not deny their right to have slavery so they left. Southern states left the Union because Abraham Lincoln banned slavery and it was their only way to make a
The secession of the Southern states became a major issue during the mid-1800s due to disagreements over tariffs and States Rights. One of the biggest issues was that Congress had voted to change the way the people of the South had lived by banning slavery. WIth the election of 1860, Lincoln ran a message of containing slavery to where it currently existed. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a book depicting that slavery was evil, which persuaded the Northerners to believe that all slave owners mistreated their slaves. Other events which led to the secession were the caning of Charles Sumner and the violence of “Bleeding
It then also sparked four more states to secede which included, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The four states that seceded last believed that Lincoln was not a right fit for the United States and believed he made the wrong call on slavery in the new states. These states feared that if new states were being added to the union as free states that soon, they would try to take slavery away from the states that already had slavery in their states. The states that seceded wanted to be on their own and wanted their own functioning government because they had disagreed with the one they had. However, their intention were to keep slavery.
Mississippi’s Civil War: A Narrative History begins by providing the account of the Nullification Crisis that took place in 1832. The crisis began as a dispute between the state of South Carolina and the federal government over a series of national tariffs that many of the southerners viewed as excessive. (6) The leader of the nullification movement in Mississippi was John Anthony Quitman. Quitman died in 1859 and Mississippi finally left the Union in 1861. (8) As a result of the Nullification crisis, the Mexican War took place. Many Mississippians volunteered to fight with much enthusiasm. After nearly two years of war, America won. (11) From 1840-1860 Mississippi’s population doubled to almost 800,000 residents and by 1860 Mississippi’s institutions were hopelessly entangled in the web of slavery. The cotton based agriculture increased the need for slaves and by the eve of the Civil War slaves represented 55 percent of the state’s total population. (12) Mississippi’s ordinance of secession officially took them out of the union in 1861 leading up to the Civil War. (32)
Imagine a life with suffering, sorrow, humiliation, insecurity, maltreatment, would you tolerate it? Unfortunately, these started happening in the South, where slavery prevailed and slaves were surrounded in a layer of injustice and inequality. In addition, authorities, social and economic problems dominated them taking away from them their opportunity to raise their voices and be heard. But what motivated the South Carolina leave the Union? If it was a legal act the secession of South Carolina from the Union according to the U.S Constitution? Was it a good or wrong action? Although the opinion vary, the South secede the Union during the American Civil War.
When noted by Finkelman, Paul. “Most Americans believe that secession was about “states’ rights,” but the South Carolina delegates’ complaints about the “increasing hostility” to slavery suggests quite the opposite. In four decades before the outbreak of Civil War. Southern leaders had called for Northern states support and to enforce the federal fugitive slave law to, change their own state laws to allow southerners to travel with slaves in the north, and suppress abolitionist speech. In the constitutional debate over slavery, that is, Southerners wanted rights for their states, but not for the Northerners.” (2). This meant that the true meaning of South Carolina leaving is that the Union being aggressive towards slavery and the south itself. This meant that the Union was to start the upcoming civil war at the time and that South Carolina needed to do this to stop the Union in taking their slaves and their rights as a state. This was the reason for South Carolina leaving the Union as they saw their rights were at
“If slavery must not expand in your mind, it’s settled, we as a state secede from the governing of the Union and join a greater power, the Confederacy. We will no longer be hampered in your hatred towards our way of living. ”…“Then be on your way, I shall not dabble in your cruel pro-slavery reasoning. Just bear the knowledge in mind, we are stronger as a whole.” The Missouri Compromise kept inevitable split of the Nation at bay when it prohibited slavery north of the parallel 3630’ north line. This was later repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which implemented idea of popular sovereignty. This led to “Bleeding Kansas.” “Border Ruffians,” who were pro-slavery and the
South Carolina also accused the Northern states of instigating “a war [that would] be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States,” (South Carolina) through the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. In Georgia’s declaration of secession, the reasons for secession are cited as “numerous and serious causes of complaint” (Georgia) against the non-slave holding states that were centered on “the subject of African slavery” (Georgia). In Mississippi, the consensus in the same; Mississippi’s position in the issue “[was] thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery” (Mississippi) and goes to list many reasons pertaining to slavery for its secession, most notably 1) The North “has made combinations and formed associations to carry out its schemes of emancipation” (Mississippi), 2) “has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every free State in the Union” (Mississippi), and 3) “advocates negro equality” (Mississippi). For these as well as other reasons all pertaining to slavery, the Confederate States seceded from the Union. In the Southern States, as seen through the declarations of secession from the Confederate States, the people, along with the governments of those states all supported secession based on issues arising from the conflict over slavery.
First off, the way they declared secession and proceeded to do so was illegal. To begin with everyday we recite the pledge of allegiance where it states, “one nation, indivisible”. Those southerners recited the same pledge we did and they recited themselves that this union is indivisible. Next, under the constitution of the United States of America secession was and always will be considered illegal because of Article 10 Section 1. In this part of the constitution it was illustrated that, “No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation….”. The southern states obviously did not follow that and violated the constitution they agreed to abide by themselves. When they concurred to join the Union they agreed to join an indivisible nation. Nowhere could they make a complaint worthy enough to try to separate for the states that they agreed to join, but of course they tried to with the controversial subject of slavery.
One of the most prevalent justifications and causes for southern secession was the protection of state and citizen rights. More specifically, the protection of the rights given to them, and protected by, the fifth amendment of the Constitution. This amendment protected the rights to property that American citizens possessed, which in the south translated into the protection of their slaves, whom they considered their property. The majority of southern opinion was that the northern states, or the union, were attempting to “strike down the rights of [the] Southern slave-holder and override every barrier which their constitution has erected for his protection” (Document 2, p. 93). By this, the southern opinion was arguing that the northern majority in the federal government was intentionally limiting southern citizens’ constitutional rights, which in the 1860’s was a serious accusation. The most common instance used to support this was the, in the southern opinion, disregard for the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Many secessionists pointed out that this law was meant to protect property rights, but that multiple northern states were attempting to nullify it (Document 2, p. 94), thereby attacking southern rights in addition to the federal laws in place.
First, our Declaration of Independence states “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government." The Confederate States defended their decision to secede by using the Due Process Clause of the 5th amendment, which stated that no person “shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”
The controversy over slaves ultimately led to the secession. Abraham Lincoln thinks slavery is wrong and he wants to stop it from spreading. Earlier, he had warned that slavery could separate a nation. In the 1860 election Lincoln is elected, but southerners are worried he will end slavery forever. Southern states start to secede because they are worried. First South Carolina succeeds, then North, Texas, and then Florida too. They give themselves a new name called the Confederate States of America. (Wise...)