What was the Souths reason for secession from the union?

Answer 1

The South seceded for one reason and one reason only--to perpetuate the institution of slavery. Read all their declarations of secession, read their constitutions: it is all there in black and white.

It was only years later, when slavery was abolished and had become (almost) universally condemned, that the mythologizing began. It became the War Between the States, the "War of Northern Aggression" (although it was South Carolina who attacked the Union), the "Lost Cause."

But it's all propaganda generated after the fact, and attempt to excuse the inexcusable, that the southerners were traitors, who took up arms against their own country. And they did it so they could continue to enslave people.

This is what the Southerners, in their own words, declared:

Mississippi...

....Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin...

South Carolina...

...A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free," and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction. This sectional combination for the submersion of the Constitution, has been aided in some of the States by elevating to citizenship, persons who, by the supreme law of the land, are incapable of becoming citizens; and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and destructive of its beliefs and safety.

From the declaration of secession in Texas...

...in this free government *all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights* [emphasis in the original]; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding states....

Virginia...

"The people of Virginia in their ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, adopted by them in convention on the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under said Constitition were derived from the people of the United States and might be resumed whensoever the same should be perverted to their injury and oppression, and the Federal Government having perverted said powers not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern slave-holding States.

The Vice-President of the Confederacy itself...

"The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the "storm came and the wind blew." Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth..."

South Carolina's Declaration of Causes of Secession Here is the "Statement of Causes Of Secession" that South Carolina used to justify its withdrawal from the Union. Tell me if there is any doubt that slavery was the primary issue.

"South Carolina Declaration of Causes of Secession December 24,1860

The people of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 2d day of April, A.D. 1852, declared that frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Federal Government, and it's encroachment upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in their withdrawal from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other Slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time these encroachments have continued to increase, and the forbearance ceases to be a virtue. And now the State of South Carolina having resumed her separate and equal place among nations, deems it due herself, to the remaining United States of America, and to the nations of the world, that she should declare the immediate causes that lead to this act. We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been destructive of them by the action of the nonslaveholding States. Those States have assumed 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 the open establishment among them of societies whose avowed object is to disturb the peace of eloin 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. For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. Observing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that article establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of all the United States whose opinions and purposes are hostile to Slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free, and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction. This sectional combination for the subversion of the Constitution has been aided, in some of the States, by elevating to citizenship persons who, by the supreme law if the land, are incapable of becoming citizens; and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and destructive of its peace and safety. On the 4th of March next this party will take possession of the Government. It has announced that the South shall be excluded from the common territory, that the Judicial Tribunal shall be made sectional, and that a war must be waged against Slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States. The guarantees of the Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost. The Slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection, and the Federal Government will have become their enemy. Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the irritation; and all hope of remedy is rendered vain, by the fact that the public opinion of the North has invested a great political error with the sanctions of a more erroneous religious belief. We, therefore, the people of South Carolina, by our delegates in convention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, have solemnly declared that the Union heretofore existing between this State and the other States of North America is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina has resumed her position among the nations of the world, as a separate and independent state, with the full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do. "

Answer 2

for slavery and states rights

A farming community vs manufacturing community

was misrepresented in the house of Representative

once the house of representatives favored the north by 2/3s the North overwhelmed the South in votes, the south was ready to leave the Union.

Most people in the South did not own slaves.So large tariffs on imports were a bigger problem.

Answer 3

The Southern US States formed the Confederate States of America. Two main reasons override all the other possible reasons for this:

A. The South was constantly in debates in Congress regarding the Federal Governments position on slavery;

B. Aside from the radical anti slavery abolitionists, the US Congress had no intention of ending slavery where it already existed. The plantation economics of the South were mostly based on cotton. The majority of cotton production was driven by slave workers;

C. The South wanted to make sure that slavery would be legal in the new territories. The Congress already had voted that new territories in the West would have the issue of slavery to be determined by the voters in either a territory or when a new State entered the Union;

D.There was a belief in the South that further expansion of slavery was going to be reduced by a majority of Congressmen at some point in the future. The 1860 election of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln caused the South alarm as his political party was greatly influenced with was termed "radical Republicans" whose desire was to eventually exterminate slavery;

E. Lincoln was personally against slavery as an institution, but had no intentions of attempting to abolish it in the South for two main reasons:

F. He declared before and after his election that he had no plans to end slavery; and

F2. Lincoln believed neither he, nor the Congress had the authority to end slavery;

F2. Despite Lincoln's insistence in this matter, many Southerners and their representatives in Congress believed that Lincoln and the radical Republicans had a hidden agenda to end slavery;

G. The other issue was the tariffs on the import of products that the South needed from abroad. Tariffs helped keep foreign goods expensive and helped Northern based manufacturers from needing to lower their prices on products they sold to the South, which had no developed manufacturing economic base;

H. The South also believed that the "States Rights" guaranteed by the US Constitution were infringed by these tariffs;

I. The South also believed that there was nothing in the US Constitution preventing any member State from withdrawing from the Union;

J. Lincoln, however, believed that as President, his duty was to protect the United States. This meant that he as Chief Executive had the right to protect Union property nationwide and most importantly saw any succession as a rebellion against the Federal Government he was sworn to protect; and

K. Radical secessionists took the first step in the US Civil War by attacking and capturing the Federal Fort Sumter in April, 1861. They believed that the US Federal government's troops on Southern soil was untenable, and to some it was an infringement of the Souths sovereignty as the Confederate States of America.

Answer 4

It is almost impossible to compile all of the reasons for succession. Here are a few: Abraham Lincoln's election, John Brown's Raid, the noncompliance of the northern states to the Fugitive Slave Act, Abolitionist publications, the widening majority of northern states in Congress, and the apparent fact that slavery would not be expanded past its current borders.

Answer 5

because aberham lincone became president