quote:
But, do people really believe...
1) war was over solely slavery
2)hundreds of thousands of men in a nation of what 20-30 million would take up arms over slavery?

While not 100% over slavery, it was the primary cause by a good bit. Every other grievance was minor or tangentially related to slavery and/or economic impacts of slavery. Anyone arguing against that has not read the articles of secession from the various states. As Mr. Burton always said, "You don't have to take my word for it."

Georgia:

quote:
The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery. They have endeavored to weaken our security, to disturb our domestic peace and tranquility, and persistently refused to comply with their express constitutional obligations to us in reference to that property, and by the use of their power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic

Mississippi:

quote:
In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course. Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world.

SC:

quote:
The Constitution of the United States, in its fourth Article, provides as follows: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."

This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it that compact would not have been made. The greater number of the contracting parties held slaves, and they had previously evinced their estimate of the value of such a stipulation by making it a condition in the Ordinance for the government of the territory ceded by Virginia, which now composes the States north of the Ohio River.

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Posted by PJinAtl

Atlanta

Member since Nov 2007

12778 posts

Posted on 1/22/24 at 12:15 pm to BottomlandBrew

quote:
While not 100% over slavery, it was the primary cause by a good bit. Every other grievance was minor or tangentially related to slavery and/or economic impacts of slavery. Anyone arguing against that has not read the articles of secession from the various states.

There's a vast difference though in why the southern states seceded and why the average southern soldier fought.

Did some of the soldiers fight to protect the institution of slavery? Yes they did. Others fought because their state had left the Union and the remaining Federal states were trying to coerce their return at the end of a rifle, which means that they were tangentially fighting to defend slavery.

However, what of those men who felt their primary allegiance was to their state, and not a confederation of states that did not specifically say in said confederation's founding documents that the union was permanent? No less than Robert E. Lee, when turning down command of the Union Army, said "Mr. Blair, I look upon secession as anarchy. If I owned the four millions of slaves in the South I would sacrifice them all to the Union but how can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native State?"

What of those men who did not own slaves and saw the move of Federal armies into their state as an act of war and rose up in defense? For example. my g-g-grandfather was initially part of the 1st Georgia State Line - tasked with guarding the railroad bridges between Atlanta and Chattanooga after the Andrews Raid/Great Locomotive Chase. His unit ended up fighting Sherman due to the push down from Chattanooga during the Atlanta campaign.

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