Have you considered that during the Civil War both sides were fighting for the rights enumerated in our Constitution?

2015-07-04T16:54:07-04:00

Response by LTC Yinon Weiss made Jul 4 at 2015 5:08 PM

2015-07-04T17:08:01-04:00

Can you clarify which enumerated rights you believe each side was fighting for?

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 4 at 2015 5:13 PM

2015-07-04T17:13:17-04:00

One side was fighting to keep human beings as livestock. That was the "right" that their states were fighting for, and their "heritage" they wanted to preserve.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 4 at 2015 5:24 PM

2015-07-04T17:24:41-04:00

For at least three decades leading up to the schism the northern and southern regions of the United States had been growing farther apart. The North became increasingly industrialized and found a ready source of inexpensive labor in the swarms of European immigrants, particularly the Irish and Germans who came in large numbers during the potato famine in those countries. The North was more inclined toward having the federal government pay all or part of the costs of internal improvements such as canals, railroads, and lighthouses.

The South remained primarily agrarian and its large farms, or plantations, depended predominately on slave labor. It opposed federal money being spent for internal improvements because at the time tariffs were the primary source of federal income. High tariffs protected the industrial goods of the North but not the cotton and tobacco of the South, where the tariffs only raised the cost of imported goods Southerners depended on.

The slave-holding states of the South drew closer to each other and farther from their Northern brethren. They feared that if slavery were not permitted to expand into new territories acquired by the United States, the South and its concerns would lose political power in the nation’s capital. A new political party, the Republicans, wanted to prevent the spread of slavery beyond where it existed, and many Republicans were radical abolitionists hoping to end slavery everywhere in America. The election of Republican Abraham Lincoln to the presidency and the success of his party in the 1860 election was the catalyst that led Southern states to carry out what they had long threatened to do—leave the Union.

The constitution of the Confederacy adopted March 11, 1861, was based on that of the United States—was, in fact, virtually the same document in most respects and often used the same language verbatim—but included provisions that specifically addressed some of the issues that had led to the North–South schism.

Among the differences, the president would serve a single, six-year term, rather than four years with the possibility of succeeding himself, and would have the power of line-item veto that would allow him to strike portions of bills passed by Congress while approving the rest of the bill. Members of the cabinet would be made non-voting members of Congress.

Response by SSgt James Atkinson made Mar 1 at 2016 10:58 AM

2016-03-01T10:58:47-05:00

In the pre-Civil War South, the primary industry was agriculture based on cheap labor and/or slave labor. The South at that time had an extremely limited industrial base, virtually non-existent fabrics, weaving, processing of cloth, textile, and other venues for their agricultural products to be processed into final goods of intermediate goods. The majority of the southern property owned thrived on the virtually free labor, and a wide array of raw materials was collected, bundled, and shipped to the North. The North, on the other hand, had a moderate to a good agricultural base, but it was highly seasonal based on the weather and restricted to crops that would do well in the region.The Northern states had an extremely strong industrial base, and the various industries were well diversified, with a fairly high population density in settled areas. The South had cotton and not much else of value. The South was essentially in deep poverty and deeply coupled to the economics of the cotton trade with the North. The South sought to separate from the North and formed their own government in rebellion to the Constitution. When the South reached a point of open rebellion and insurrection, the President of the United Stated gravely erred and dispatched General Burnside to quell the rebellion, but the General was a poor leader, and incompetent in strategy and infantry, which lead to a lead to the rebels that strengthened their response to fight, instead of returning them to a neutral political footing.

The Civil War was not about slavery, but rather about cotton, and about a weak economic base in the South that was addicted to the profits of Cotton.