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The Succession of the Southern States from United States

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The succession of the eleven southern states significantly impacted the United States and its citizens during the years of 1860 and 1861. Many people are curious as to why, after many years of unification and prosperity, the North and South would find it necessary to split apart. Many aspects contributed to the southern states decision to succeed from the union including: the diverse perspectives on the emancipation of slavery, the South’s belief it was capable of being self sufficient, as well as, standing as a nation on its own, and the concern that the Constitution of the United States was being altered from the original meaning it was meant to have. The debate over slavery, what it stood for, and what rights the African American population was actually granted by the Constitution was probably the most significant issue contributing to secession. In his 1858 "On the Irrepressible Conflict," William Seward addresses the condition of the United States clearly by stating, “Our Country is a theatre, which exhibits, in full operation, two radically different political systems; the one resting on the basis of servile or slave labor, the other on voluntary labor of freemen.” This statement is evidence that each side had completely different interpretations of the rights that were set forth to the slave population within the Constitution. The South believed the Constitution granted the African American slaves no civil liberties at all. They had no rights guaranteed to them

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