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Civil War

Started by Deagonx, September 30, 2011, 09:12:04 PM

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Deagonx

In your opinions, what was the civil war REALLY fought over? If you had to pin it down to one thing.


(It was not slavery, I'm throwing this out right now. less than 10 percent of southerners had ANY slaves. And the emancipation proclamation stated all slaves were freed in states that seceded from the union. Why would seceded states listen to Abraham Lincoln? They wouldn't. It was a political move. And if they came back to the union they kept their slaves.)


I believe it was fought over Abraham Lincoln being elected. He had 40% of the votes and won. Why? Because the south didn't even consider him a candidate and didn't think he should have won. He wasn't even an option in many southern states. Just the 2 other guys that got 30 percent.
I believe in evolution. How else would Charmander become Charizard?

ArtDrake

Are you familiar with the electoral college system?

Do you realize that wars are often fought over money, and that slave labor was important to the owners of large plantations;
and that as a result, even though less than one-tenth of Southerners had slaves (which I shall give you the benefit of the doubt on) the richer one-tenth's business interests could easily bring war?

SmartyPants

Quote from: Deagonx on September 30, 2011, 09:12:04 PMI believe it was fought over Abraham Lincoln being elected. He had 40% of the votes and won. Why? Because the south didn't even consider him a candidate and didn't think he should have won. He wasn't even an option in many southern states. Just the 2 other guys that got 30 percent.
I don't think it mattered how much Lincoln won by.  The South just didn't like the fact Lincoln won at all, because they believed that Lincoln and other Republicans would use federal powers to take away powers of the state such as laws regulating slavery.

Quote from: Duckling on September 30, 2011, 10:43:07 PMDo you realize that wars are often fought over money, and that slave labor was important to the owners of large plantations; and that as a result, even though less than one-tenth of Southerners had slaves (which I shall give you the benefit of the doubt on) the richer one-tenth's business interests could easily bring war?
I once heard that the value of slaves was more then any other asset in America including railways and factories.  The north wanted to free the slaves without any compensation to slave owners which would/did bankrubt the South.


I think the American Civil War was a continuation of the arguement between the Federalist and Anti-Federalist--how much power should be given to the National and  State governments.  The fact that the South formed confederation instead of a federation is proof that they believe more power should be given to the states.

ArtDrake

Almost exactly my point. Even though only 10% might have had slaves, those ten percent were pretty much the richest 10%, and the richest 10%, if you hadn't noticed, have a lot of say in who fights whom, and where, and when.

Deagonx

Quote from: Duckling on September 30, 2011, 10:43:07 PM
Are you familiar with the electoral college system?

Do you realize that wars are often fought over money, and that slave labor was important to the owners of large plantations;
and that as a result, even though less than one-tenth of Southerners had slaves (which I shall give you the benefit of the doubt on) the richer one-tenth's business interests could easily bring war?

I'm saying that it was not in Abraham Lincoln's priorities to free slaves. And that wasn't part of the whole states seceding thing.
I believe in evolution. How else would Charmander become Charizard?

SmartyPants

Quote from: Deagonx on October 04, 2011, 04:43:06 PMI'm saying that it was not in Abraham Lincoln's priorities to free slaves. And that wasn't part of the whole states seceding thing.
Lincoln did claim that he wasn't going to force the South into becoming free states, but Southerns didn't believe him, so they suceeded.

Deagonx

Quote from: SmartyPants on October 04, 2011, 09:36:12 PM
Quote from: Deagonx on October 04, 2011, 04:43:06 PMI'm saying that it was not in Abraham Lincoln's priorities to free slaves. And that wasn't part of the whole states seceding thing.
Lincoln did claim that he wasn't going to force the South into becoming free states, but Southerns didn't believe him, so they suceeded.

Source?
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SmartyPants

I got the information from my history text book and I don't feel like spending my time looking up other sources, so you are going to have to believe me or find a source that says otherwise.

I don't see you sourcing anything yourself.

Deagonx

Quote from: SmartyPants on October 05, 2011, 11:20:58 PM

I don't see you sourcing anything yourself.

I didn't go as far as to speak for the entire population.
I believe in evolution. How else would Charmander become Charizard?

Tastidian

Wow 120 days well ill break its record. I haven't been on in a long time.

The original reason for this war was due to the balance of power from the states and federal powers. Eventually since the North so happens to be a union of abolitionist the nearing the end of the war this suddenly shifted the conflict and of course the north won therefore slavery was abolished but the origin of the war was between state and federal powers.

Since the time of the Revolution, two camps emerged: those arguing for greater states rights and those arguing that the federal government needed to have more control. The first organized government in the US after the American Revolution was under the Articles of Confederation. The thirteen states formed a loose confederation with a very weak federal government. However, when problems arose, the weakness of this form of government caused the leaders of the time to come together at the Constitutional Convention and create, in secret, the US Constitution. Strong proponents of states rights like Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were not present at this meeting. Many felt that the new constitution ignored the rights of states to continue to act independently. They felt that the states should still have the right to decide if they were willing to accept certain federal acts. This resulted in the idea of nullification, whereby the states would have the right to rule federal acts unconstitutional. The federal government denied states this right. However, proponents such as John C. Calhoun fought vehemently for nullification. When nullification would not work and states felt that they were no longer respected, they moved towards secession.