Secession & The American Civil War

Thanks for accepting TN05! This is a favorite topic of mine.... To support my main assertion, I will first point towards the constitution to which both countries were bound prior to the secession of the southern states. Starting with the preamble and moving into The Bill of Rights I will show the legal right of secession clearly existed for any state in the union during that era. Upon these conclusions I will further my initial claims by showing subsequent invasions by the armies of the United States were legally untenable acts of aggression. To paraphrase the preamble...Law, Peace, Security, Prosperity and Freedom for us and our children are the purposes for which this great compact was created by the 13 original, independent, & sovereign colonies. In the simplest of terms, the seceding states felt the purposes set forth in the constitution were not being dutifully observed by all parties. To help illustrate this I assert commonly known facts; (1) They were banned, by congress, from transporting there own legal property (slaves) into areas mutually owned by the entire country, a practice that was common in the early years of our republic. In southern eyes, this was a clear abrogation of established law. (2) Hangings, brutal beatings, war mongering and various others evil deeds were being regularly committed (by both sides) across Kansas and Missouri, disturbing the peace for all. (3) Slave insurrections were deliberately attempted amongst southerners by Northern agents, leaving serious doubts in every southerner's mind to their own security. (4) The very cornerstone of southern economic prosperity was being threatened with forced extermination with nary one serious discussion regarding reparation for such a trespass. Prosperity did not seem likely to the average southern business man. Having failed to fulfill on the first four purposes, and as a result, failing to guarantee the blessings of the fifth, northerners were in no position to demand strict adherence to the constitution even if secession had been clearly labeled as sedition. Which leads to my next point. No where in the entire Constitution of the USA is the word "secession" mentioned. It is not sanctioned, or condemned. The whole work was completely silent on the issue. The framers, however, in their seemingly endless foresight, even allowed for such a contingency within the perimeters of The Constitution itself. This was accomplished with the addition of the 9th & 10th amendments in The Bill of Rights. To put it simply, the 9A necessarily clarifies that a right (like secession) doesn't need to be expressly granted by The Constitution to exist. The 10A helps to clarify this concept even further by saying any power not specifically given to the federal government by The Constitution, nor specifically prohibited by it, are there by reserved to the states. From a legal perspective these amendments clearly reserved the right of any state to secede from a union. Particularly with a solid (sometimes unanimous) ordinance of approval from the inhabitants of the participating states. Having shown the obvious right of secession one can only conclude any actions taken by the US government on Confederate soil and against it's wishes could only be qualified as illegal and unprovoked. The CSA immediately sent peace emissaries to treat with the United States for the "peaceful and equitable" conclusion of financial matters between the two nations as well to negotiate mutually beneficial commerce agreements. The emissaries were in most cases rejected, and in others, intentionally deceived. Every federal installment on Southern property was given due notice and permitted to peacefully withdrawal with honors. In the most famous case of Fort Sumter, federal authorities were given four months of notice and repeated demands for evacuation and were fired on only after months of duplicitous dealings with the Lincoln administration and in the face of an imminent threat to one of The Confederacy's most significant harbors. I ask, if the United States occupied a base within the natural boundaries of France and against her wishes, would it be us or them who started a war when France fired on our forces? Sources: The Civil War, a historical narrative; Shelby Foote Battle Cry of Freedom; James McPherson The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government; Jefferson Davis