Posted on 08/11/2015 1:11:21 PM PDT by iowamark
What caused the Civil War? That seems like the sort of simple, straightforward question that any elementary school child should be able to answer. Yet many Americans—including, mostly, my fellow Southerners—claim that that the cause was economic or state’s rights or just about anything other than slavery.
But slavery was indisputably the primary cause, explains Colonel Ty Seidule, Professor of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
The abolition of slavery was the single greatest act of liberty-promotion in the history of America. Because of that fact, it’s natural for people who love freedom, love tradition, and love the South to want to believe that the continued enslavement of our neighbors could not have possibly been the motivation for succession. But we should love truth even more than liberty and heritage, which is why we should not only acknowledge the truth about the cause of the war but be thankful that the Confederacy lost and that freedom won.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.acton.org ...
I didn't realize your great-grandfather was the guy who started the war. It's good to know who to blame
If he wasn't responsible, if forces larger and more powerful than himself caused the thing, then his own motives for fighting may not tell us why the war started and we may have to look elsewhere for explanations.
I should add that the North had been punishing the South for decades with tariffs that favored the manufacturers over the growers.
“Johnny Red”? From a red state?
You may think that American History has no use in 2015, that it is all irrelevant now. The exact opposite is true.
I remember even as a wee lad in school thinking that attributing the entire civil war to slavery grossly oversimplified the event.
Lincoln himself did not claim the war to be a war to free slaves...instead he stated it was a war to ‘preserve the union’.
Lincoln later used emancipation as a weapon against the south...but without genuine interest in freeing slaves. How do I know that? For starters, the proclamation did not apply to any slave holding union states.
Historically speaking, in the 19th century, nations just flat did not invade other nations over ‘social issues’. I don’t think a politician or general of the era could resist howling with laughter at the notion the north would invade the south over slavery. Its silly to project 21st century values to a 19th century conflict.
"We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection."
Abraham Lincoln’s election was the direct cause of secession and the Civil War. And that was because he opposed the extension of slavery in the territories / new states, which meant slavery was doomed.
So yes it was about slavery and it was brought to a head by the election of Lincoln.
What individual southerners fought for is another matter. Once the confederate states seceded the North was going to invade to preserve the union, meaning many indeed fight to resist what they viewed as northern aggression.
A lot of idiotic Freepers believe that, DoodleDawg poop being one of them.
NO!
A succession of events and prevailing thoughts made cause for the Southern States to secede.
They were ultimately unsuccessful and ceded to Northern aggressions in which the Union Forces successfully forced the Confederates to accede to demands for peace.
They didn't start the war either. If you're looking for causes of the conflict, you won't find them in why one particular soldier went to war.
Most Southerners were glad there was ANY reason to shoot at Yankees with a GFE rifle and ammo. Slavery works as good as any.
I should add: “They Conceded”...
“just READ the Articles of Confederation”
I’m confused...wasn’t that circa 1777?
When blacks began moving northward looking for work, weren't there quite a few violent episodes of white on black riots?
No. It was about money and the control of the mouth of the Mississippi.
Not sure why, but your post made me think of this song. Or at least the title.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=r0qBaBb1Y-U
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