Causes of Secession

Causes of Secession
Today it is very common to simply the cause of the war to the extent that it is distorted. Rather than the recitation of the facts one would expect, it has become an emotional issue. It is so emotional that when I have posted material like this I often received, to the effect, it was about slavery and you can't tell me otherwise. So what was it about? They told us. You can read their complete statements in the following. The following links are to the complete documents mentioned in the discusion. Georgia Mississippi South Carolina Texas The states had two primary issues, both constitutional. The federal government was refusing to force the northern states to honor both federal and state law as required by the federal constitution. The federal government was practicing trade policies that deliberately discriminated against the southern states. First to the fundamental issue, by the federal constitution, the Federalist Papers, and by all political thought in the country to the time of the war, the states were independent nations. They had banded together under the federal constitution for the reasons stated in the preamble be "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." . The federal constitution was binding contract. I agree today it is not looked at in that manner but that is today. The folks who wrote it certainly knew what they meant by it. It is foolishness to consider otherwise. With that in mind consider the two points. The federal constitution required¹ (and still requires) all states to honor the laws of any state. There were no exceptions. See below. If you read the above declarations you will find this point much better said than I could say it. The second point was that the federal government was engaged in encouraging the industrial revolution in the US. But this was being done in a manner inconsistant with equality between the states. The declaration of Georgia makes a particularly strong point of this. The north was the particular beneficiary of improvements in harbors and other facilities related to international trade. The particular issue to the south was finished goods were be protected which raised their price but there was no similar protection for cotton. Whether in hindsight these were good or bad policies (weighing in the lives lost in the war) is moot. They were in fact a consequence of the statehood policies that kept slave states impotent in Congress. So we see, slavery was not the cause of secession but rather a consequence of the violation of the constitution, the contract. And as it was clearly destructive to the rights of the southern states, they exercised the principle of the Declaration of Independence and instituted a new government. Simple, direct and clear. ¹Article IV Sect. 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public act, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. Sect. 2. 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. 2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

Today it is very common to simply the cause of the war to the extent that it is distorted. Rather than the recitation of the facts one would expect, it has become an emotional issue. It is so emotional that when I have posted material like this I often received, to the effect, it was about slavery and you can't tell me otherwise.

So what was it about? They told us. You can read their complete statements in the following.

The following links are to the complete documents mentioned in the discusion.

The states had two primary issues, both constitutional.

The federal government was refusing to force the northern states to honor both federal and state law as required by the federal constitution.
The federal government was practicing trade policies that deliberately discriminated against the southern states.

First to the fundamental issue, by the federal constitution, the Federalist Papers, and by all political thought in the country to the time of the war, the states were independent nations. They had banded together under the federal constitution for the reasons stated in the preamble be "to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." . The federal constitution was binding contract.

I agree today it is not looked at in that manner but that is today. The folks who wrote it certainly knew what they meant by it. It is foolishness to consider otherwise.

With that in mind consider the two points. The federal constitution required¹ (and still requires) all states to honor the laws of any state. There were no exceptions. See below.

If you read the above declarations you will find this point much better said than I could say it.

The second point was that the federal government was engaged in encouraging the industrial revolution in the US. But this was being done in a manner inconsistant with equality between the states. The declaration of Georgia makes a particularly strong point of this.

The north was the particular beneficiary of improvements in harbors and other facilities related to international trade. The particular issue to the south was finished goods were be protected which raised their price but there was no similar protection for cotton.

Whether in hindsight these were good or bad policies (weighing in the lives lost in the war) is moot. They were in fact a consequence of the statehood policies that kept slave states impotent in Congress.

So we see, slavery was not the cause of secession but rather a consequence of the violation of the constitution, the contract. And as it was clearly destructive to the rights of the southern states, they exercised the principle of the Declaration of Independence and instituted a new government. Simple, direct and clear.

¹Article IV

Sect. 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public act, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

Sect. 2.

1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.

2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime.

3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.