South Secede Dbq

The secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860, by a vote of 169-0 was a response to the election of Abraham Lincoln of 1860. Lincoln perceived as an abolitionist wanted to contain slavery rather than ending it. The majority party above the Mason-Dixon line were Republicans and below were primarily Democrats and Republicans were viewed as abolitionists. The election of a Republican threatened the South’s status quo. The primary catalyst for secession was based on slavery. Different social cultures and political beliefs developed due to the South’s intimate and reliant relationship on slavery. Southern whites feared the end of slavery and this paranoia was shared among plantation slave owners and white Yeoman farmers. Southern whites felt that the North were threatening the supposed tranquility of the South. The South’s agrarian economy, honor, and independence were believed to be in danger. Slavery was intertwined with the South’s social, cultural, and economic makeup. As a result of slavery, the South developed a paternalistic culture and racial ideology of white supremacy. The perceived notion that the North was influencing it’s political and social beliefs on the South lead them to believe that secession was the only act of self-preservation. The growing differences between the South and North made it difficult to negotiate. This fear was exaggerated and accelerated the South’s eventual implosion. The South believed that without slavery it would self-destruct and

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...)

Tensions between the North and South had grown steadily since the anti slavery movement in 1830. Several compromises between the North and South regarding slavery had been passed such as the Nebraska-Kansas and the Missouri act; but this did little to relieve the strain. The election of President Lincoln in 1861 proved to be the boiling point for the South, and secession followed. This eventually sparked the civil war; which was viewed differently by the North and the South. The Northern goal was to keep the Union intact while the Southern goal was to separate from the Union. Southern leaders gave convincing arguments to justify secession. Exploring documents from South Carolina’s secession ordinance and a speech from the Georgia

When Abraham Lincoln won the presidency in 1860 the Union was divided. He accepted his presidential duties knowing that he was working with a nation that no longer remained united. Seven of the southern states had already seceded from the Union and were beginning to refer to themselves as the Confederates. What he had now were free states and slave states. When Lincoln gave his Inaugural Address he attempted to do so in a way that would not dissuade his chances of gaining support in the southern states, especially when it involved the institution of slavery. However, he also made it clear in his address that he believed a secure and united nation was of utmost importance and he rejected the ideas

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

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as president of the United States. In his inaugural speech, he declared that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, and that this was a binding contract. He said he didn’t have any plans to invade the southern states, but that he would use force to maintain possession of federal property.

Lincoln opposed the breakaway of the Southern states, and this led to the American Civil War. Lincoln had preserved the union during it. The Civil War had cost more than many people’s prediction. Lincoln appeared to lose the support from the populations, but Lincoln had enough patience. His leadership and the attitude of pleasing to work with his patience helped him to held the country together. At the beginning, the Civil War was to help the survival of Union, but as the war going on and getting progress, Lincoln gain more trust, love, and support from the general population. IN this situation, Lincoln made the issue of releasing the

The secession of seven southern states. After Lincoln was elected southern states were furious. The reason why they were furious was that they never voted for him. They felt that their votes did not matter to them. Some states threatened to secede from the union. Secession was declared unconstitutional, but the states did not care. Lincoln argued that “The government was a union of people and not of states.”. He could of of helped the states or let the states go and let the United States look weak and apart. He picked the second choice, eleven states seceded, South Carolina was the first to go. The states were Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee,

There were many reasons the Southern States cried secession and often they exerted this. Southern states viewed slavery as a constitution right and slaves as property and commodity over the humility this shadowed. The north viewed slavery as in humane and that all men should be free as written in the constitution. These different views clashed when new territories in the west were forming. The Southern sates seen this as an opportunity, to establish pro-slavery states in California and New Mexico. The president elect Zachary Tailor revealed his new ideas of slavery and the western states to congress. Congress did not want to pick a fight with the fire eaters so they quickly made California and New Mexico states and have their state government

The disagreements for the north and south over the tariffs became the greatest battle between them, as slavery was only legal in the south. The north states was banned by the Mason- Dixonline, Secession has begun, this was a reason for slavery to begin. They started the war as soon as they could, in order to get there slaves in time for their businesses and factories. In 1860, when Lincoln was president, the constitution believed that every state had the right to leave the union. Lincoln did not agree, he did not believe that they have a right. “He opposed secession for these reasons: Physically the states cannot separate, secession is unlawful, a government

He believed it was his responsibility as President to apply the laws that would keep the states in the Union even against their will as expressed by democratic conventions and state congress. His policy is ironic and even hypocritical because this position causes serious problems with Lincoln’s own doctrine of the right of revolution that he expressed in Congress on January 12, 1848 during the Mexican War. If there was no war , the Northern abolitionists could have seeked ways to help the slaves in the South, and most likely the Fugitive Slave Law would not have been applied. If all the slave states seceded, then the slaves could have ran away to the Northern states.

This shows that South Carolina had the right to secede because it was a sovereign state. It also shows how the South should have had the right to decide whether they would want to secede from the country or not. Another example is that when the Southern states joined the Union, it was voluntarily (Appleby et.al 556). “Nowhere in the Constitution is there any mention of the union of the states being permanent.” (http:/civilwar.bluegrass.net). This shows that they should have the right to leave the Union if they choose to. They had this right because the South had no bind with the Union stating that they had to stay except for the United States constitution in which the North had already violated. Even though the United States constitution was what they looked at as a contract, the Union already desecrated its’ terms before this dispute. It also shows how the right was their own and the government could not control their choices in staying or not. These reasons and examples show how the South had to right to secede because of various reasons regarding the political state the government was in.

The election of Lincoln in November 1860 was the final trigger for secession.[74] Efforts at compromise, including the "Corwin Amendment" and the "Crittenden Compromise", failed. Southern leaders feared that Lincoln would stop the expansion of slavery and put it on a course toward extinction. The slave states, which had already become a minority in the House of Representatives, were now facing a future as a perpetual minority in the Senate and Electoral College against an increasingly powerful North. Before Lincoln took office in March 1861, seven slave states had declared their secession and joined together to form the Confederacy.

According to Greeley’s prayer “Those provisions were designed to fight Slavery with Liberty. They prescribe that men loyal to the Union, and willing to shed their blood in her behalf, shall no longer be held, with the nation's consent, in bondage to persistent, malignant traitors, who for twenty years have been plotting and for sixteen months have been fighting to divide and destroy our country” (Greely 1). This shows that the some states wanted to secede and strongly disliked what the president was doing. It could be difficult to stop a lot of states from seceding but Lincoln was able to do

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.