03.09.07
the cause of the Civil War
I’ve received some feedback that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War. These sources say that the southern states wanted more autonomy than they were given under the federal form of government. Although this is true, the reason they were big proponents of “states’ rights” is because the federal government was passing all kinds of laws making it difficult for the southern states to have slaves. Obviously, if each state was a sovereign unto itself, it could pass whatever laws it saw fit. But they wouldn’t have been so keen on states’ rights if not for the pressure from Washington. The southern states got to the point where they were nullifying individual laws created by Congress, specifically laws that impinged their sovereignty or their ability to keep slaves. So it’s very easy to say that slavery was the cause of the Civil War, AND that states’ rights was the cause of the Civil War.
