North Carolina Secedes

Capital Building in 1861

Today 150 years ago North Carolina seceded from the Union. North Carolina was the last to go. In February they had voted against secession, but after Lincoln's call for troops they reconsidered:

Whereas, ... Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, did, on the 16th day of April, by his proclamation call upon the States of the Union to furnish large bodies of troops to enable him, under the false pretense of executing the laws, to march an army into the seceded States with a few to their subjection under an arbitrary military authority, there being no law of Congress authorizing such calling out of troops, and no constitutional right to use them, if called out, for the purpose intended by him; ...¹

Therefore they declared their independence and severed their bond with the United States:

We do further declare and ordain, that the union now subsisting between the State of North Carolina, and the other States, under the title of 'The United States of America," is hereby dissolved, and that the State of North Carolina is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.²

A large percentage of North Carolina's people were still for the Union, but they did more than their share for the Confederacy. One-seventh of all Confederate troops came from North Carolina.

1.  The North Carolina Booklet volume XI, no. 1, July 1911 p. 15 This text was not actually adopted, it is from an earlier draft. The final resolution was much shorter and did not go into the details of why they chose to leave the Union.
2. Ibid, p. 16

"All We Ask is to be Let Alone"

Jefferson Davis

150 years ago today Jefferson Davis gave an important speech to the Confederate Congress in Montgomery. He began by announcing that all the seceded states had adopted the Confederate Constitution, and continued on to address issues that would probably come up during the coming war.

He quickly recounted the grievances of the south against the north and how a president had been elected who ran on the platform of abolishing slavery:

With interests of such overwhelming magnitude imperiled, the people of the Southern States were driven by the conduct of the North to the adoption of some course of action to avert the danger with which they were openly menaced. With this view the legislatures of the several States invited the people to select delegates to conventions to be held for the purpose of determining for themselves what measures were best adapted to meet so alarming a crisis in their history. ... In the exercise of [the] right [to redress grievances] so ancient, so well established, and so necessary for self-preservation, the people of the Confederate States, in their conventions, determined that the wrongs which they had suffered and the evils with which they were menaced required that they should revoke the delegation of powers to the Federal Government which they had ratified in their several conventions. They consequently passed ordinances resuming all their rights as sovereign and Independent States and dissolved their connection with the other States of the Union.

Davis said that the new Confederacy attempted to establish friendly terms with the nation which they had just left, but were refused. He told of the necessary attack on Fort Sumter, Lincoln's call for 75,000 men, the secession of Virginia, and the Confederate efforts to organize the government and raise troops for its defense. He concluded:

A people thus united and resolved cannot shrink from any sacrifice which they may be called on to make, nor can there be a reasonable doubt of their final success, however long and severe may be the test of their determination to maintain their birthright of freedom and equality as a trust which it is their first duty to transmit undiminished to their posterity. A bounteous Providence cheers us with the promise of abundant crops. The fields of grain which will within a few weeks be ready for the sickle give assurance of the amplest supply of food for man; whilst the corn, cotton, and other staple productions of our soil afford abundant proof that up to this period the season has been propitious. We feel that our cause is just and holy; we protest solemnly in the face of mankind that we desire peace at any sacrifice save that of honor and independence; we seek no conquest, no aggrandizement, no concession of any kind from the States with which we were lately confederated; all we ask is to be let alone; that those who never held power over us shall not now attempt our subjugation by arms. This we will, this we must, resist to the direst extremity. The moment that this pretension is abandoned the sword will drop from our grasp, and we shall be ready to enter into treaties of amity and commerce that cannot but be mutually beneficial. So long as this pretension is maintained, with a firm reliance on that Divine Power which covers with its protection the just cause, we will continue to struggle for our inherent right to freedom, independence, and self-government.

You can read the entire speech here.

Lincoln Calls for Troops to Attack the South

Abraham Lincoln

The attack on Fort Sumter had very sudden political effects. While the South saw the fort as part of their territory occupied by a foreign nation which could rightfully be removed, the North saw it as an attack and insurrection on the government. Therefore, the day after the surrender, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for the states to call out 75,000 militia to suppress the rebellion. He said,

Whereas the laws of the United States have been for some time past, and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings...

He said that the first responsibility of the militia summoned would be to repossess the forts from which they were driven, and he assured the people of the South that, “utmost care will be observed ... to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country.”

We have discussed earlier how the Upper Slave states of the south had not yet seceded. While they wished to keep their slaves and desired to remain in the Union, they would not participate in an invasion of the seceded states. Just two days before President Lincoln told a prominent Virginian that no invasion would take place, just as he had said in his inauguration, “beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion - no use of force against or among the people anywhere.” But now he was calling upon the South to raise troops to attack the states who had exercised their right to leave the Union.

Causes of the War State's Rights

As we have discussed on this blog before, slavery was the main issue that caused the Deep South States to secede, but secession did not necessarily mean war. This is a major misunderstanding about the Civil War today. When the North was considering whether or not to attack the South, the question was no longer about slavery. The question was whether or not the Southern states had a right to be allowed to leave the Union peacefully. The South viewed the United States as a confederation in which the states joined together for mutual protection. They joined freely, so they thought they could leave freely. However, the North believed that the states surrendered their sovereignty and could never regain it. It was this difference of understanding that caused the South to fight for freedom and the North to preserve the indissolvable Union.

Constitution

To start off, the U.S. Constitution does not clearly permit or forbid secession. The other founding documents convey contradictory impressions. When Virginia joined the Union they specifically reserved the right to secede. However, the Northwest Ordinance, an important bill passed by Congress regarding adding new states to the Union, forbade secession. There were differences of opinion regarding this right before the war, but as we will see, they were not clearly divided between North and South.

History of Secession

The 1860s were not the first time that states had threatened to leave the Union. It had also happened during several crises since the founding of America. At those times it had been debated whether the right to secede was retained by the states. What is interesting though is that several times it was not the South, but also the North that was arguing for secession. In the years directly proceeding the war the abolitionists urged their states to leave the Union because they thought it was wrong to be in a Union that also contained slaveholders. During one of their meetings in 1844:

... it was decided ... that fidelity to the cause of human freedom, hatred of oppression, sympathy for those who are held in chains and slavery in this republic, and allegiance to God, require that the existing national compact should be instantly dissolved; that secession from the government is a religious and political duty; that the motto inscribed on the banner of Freedom should be, NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS; ¹

These were the same men that in 1861 declared that they must fight to preserve the Union.

State Sovereignty

The debate over the legitimacy of secession really comes down to a different view of state sovereignty. Is the Union is a collection of states joined together for the common good, and still reserving much sovereignty to themselves, or did the states just become departments of the federal government? The Civil War resulted in a huge lose of the states' power, ignoring the Constitution and what the founders intended. The states were constitutionally intended to provide a check on the federal government and were to retain all power that they did not specifically delegate to the federal government. After the Southern states were defeated in their attempt to leave the Union, they were not let back in until they surrendered many of their original rights – even though the North claimed they had not even really left in the first place.

Bibically

One of the applications of the Bible to civil government that was made by the Reformers was the doctrine of interposition. This is the idea that the when the greater civil magistrates become wicked and tyrannical, the lesser civil magistrates are to lead the people to remove them. This is similar to what the South was trying to do in their secession. The state officials voted to leave the Union because it was trying to abolish the institution of slavery which they believed was ordained by God, and they formed a new union that would better fulfill the role of civil government.

Conclusion

While slavery served as a catalist, it did not cause the war. The war was fought over state's rights. Did states have the right to regulate their own laws and to leave the Union when it was no longer beneficial to them? As we will see later, the upper south did not secede because they thought Lincoln would abolish slavery. They seceded because they were ordered to attack their brethren who had left the Union.

I will close with a quote from Jefferson Davis after the war:

Secession ... is to be justified upon the basis that the States are sovereign. There was a time when none denied it. I hope the time may come again, when a better comprehension of the theory of our Government, and the inalienable rights of the people of the States, will prevent any one from denying that each State is a sovereign, and thus may reclaim the grants which it has made to any agent whomsoever.

Jefferson Davis

1. The Constitution A Pro-Slavery Compact (New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1845) p. 101 Source. 

Causes of the War - Slavery

Slavery was the main cause of the secession of the deep South states, and it is what most people today believe was the cause of the war. But there are many misconceptions about what slavery was like, and whether or not it was a good thing.

Cruelty of Slavery

The book that had the greatest influence on the Northern and modern perception of slavery is Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. That book caused many of the Northerners to believe that slaves were being tortured and needed to be freed, and that view continues until today. The problem is Harriet Beecher Stowe gave an incorrect picture of how slavery actually was. Not that the stories contained in her book were not based on fact – many of them were. But Stowe said they all happened to one family. It would be like someone today finding every horrible story about child abuse in the newspaper and writing a book saying they happened to one family. And what may seem cruel to us today would have been normal at that time. For example, beating. Slaves were beaten from time to time, but at the same time sailors were sometimes beaten with thousands of lashes. Practices which would have been normal at the time seem very evil to us today.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Racial Reasons

Many people think that the Southerners believed that people with darker skin were a lesser race or not even people at all. Unfortunately, this view was held by some, but not all, of the people in the South. But this view was held by the Northerners as well. They believed that the slaves should be free, but that did not mean that they thought they should have the same rights as whites. Interracial marriages were illegal in most of the Northern states. Abraham Lincoln and others believed that after the slaves were freed they should be sent to colonies in Africa. Lincoln said, "Free them, and make them politically and socially, our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this; and if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not."¹ And, "[I]t does not follow that social and political equality between whites and blacks, must be incorporated, because slavery must not."² So while some in the South did view blacks as a lesser race, the same view was held by many in the North.

Slave Market in Atlanta, Georgia

Slavery in the Bible

One of the main reasons that the abolitionists claimed that slavery was wrong was because it is forbidden by the Bible. However, this is not true. While we do not have the space for a deep exegesis, I will give an overview of the reasons. In the Old Testament there were two different types of slavery which God commanded. If an Israelite sold himself into slavery, he must be let go after serving for seven years unless he wished to stay longer. However, if the Israelites captured prisoners when attacking a foreign nation, they were slaves forever. Many great Biblical figures were slaveholders, and in the New Testament God commanded masters to be just to their servants and servants to obey their masters. Never does the Bible forbid slavery or condemn slaveholders.

The Bible and Southern Slavery

When we compare Southern Slavery to the Bible we see several problems. First, the slavery was based partially on race. There were examples of white slaves and black masters, but that was not the norm. Second, the slaves were obtained in an unrighteous manner. The Slave Trade was clearly wrong, but as we have discussed before, it was illegal at the time of the war. Third, Christian slaves were not freed after seven years. While it is not expressly commanded in the Bible, we can assume that if a slave became a Jew, they would be freed after seven years like the normal Hebrew slaves. However, this was not practiced in the South. These are the major problems that I see with Southern Slavery.

The correct way to remedy these was not to abolish slavery. When this was done it caused bitterness against the former slaves by their former owners. The Bible commanded perpetual slavery for the pagans so that they could be transformed into productive members of society by becoming Christians. That process was not complete, therefore many of the descendants of the Civil War era slaves are slaves today to the government through welfare and other entitlement programs. They have continued to act like pagans in some ways, which results in a high murder rate in inner cities and a high illegitimate birth rate.

1. Political Speeches and Debates of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas edt. Alonzo T. Jones. Source. p. 9
2. The Writings of Abraham Lincoln: 1858-1862. (New York: The Lamb Publishing Company, 1906) Source. p. 16

The Slave Trade

A Slave Ship

Most people today confuse Southern slavery with the slave trade, but they were actually very different things. The slave trade was the process of buying kidnapped slaves from Africa and bringing them over to Europe or America. By the time of the drafting of the US Constitution many people realized that this was an evil that should be outlawed, but because some states would not join the new nation if the slave trade was not protected for some length of time, the Congress was not allowed to outlaw it until 1808. However, it may surprise you which states opposed the slave trade. Virginia, although it had the highest percentage of slaves at 39%, had already outlawed the slave trade and had no problem with the Congress outlawing it has well. It was the states in the deep south that supported the slave trade.

Even though the North did not have a large number of slaves, they were the ones that owned and manned the ships that carried on the slave trade. Thomas Jefferson wrote this about the debate over the Declaration of Independence:

The clause too, reprobating the enslaving [of] the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who on the contrary still wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also I believe felt a little tender under those censures; for tho' their people have very few slaves themselves yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.¹

By 1808 several more states had outlawed the slave trade and Congress outlawed it on January 1st, the earliest date that it was permitted to by the Constitution. When the Southern States left the Union and formed the Confederacy, not only did they not try to reestablish the slave trade, it was actually outlawed in the Confederate Constitution. They did not want to be associated with what they considered the evil practice of the slave trade.

1. Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson, p. 16-17. Source. 

Causes of the War - Economics

One of the four causes of the Southern secession and the War Between the States was economic impoverishment of the South. While it was not their main complaint, they believed that the North had pillaged them. In the Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union, they said:

They have impoverished the slave-holding States by unequal and partial legislation, thereby enriching themselves by draining our substance.¹

The roots of the economic disagreements went all the way back to the United States Constitution. In the writing of the Constitution the founders had to consider how to raise money for the federal government. Rather than modern taxes such as the income tax, they chose only two, the head tax and the tariff.² A tariff is a tax on imports or exports. The federal government was not intended to have any jurisdiction inside a state. It was only allowed to regulate commerce that crossed state borders. Therefore it was only given the right to tax goods that crossed the national border. The problem with a tariff is that the government can easily use it to give advantages or punishments to particular industries or states. The Constitution specifically forbade different tariff rates for different states,³ but as we will see it still can be unfair even while charging the same rate.

Exports

The first type of tariff is on exports, where the merchant has to pay a tax to export products from the nation. Exports are rarely used because they have a direct and visible hit on a specific industry. If a Representative from North Carolina votes for a tariff on tobacco, the tobacco producers from his home state will not re-elect him because he raised their taxes.

Imports

Taxes on imports charge foreign producers to bring the product into your country. This helps in the home industry because they can raise their prices, or be less efficient. If a government charges a 20% tariff on imports of cars, when a foreign company makes a $10,000 car, in the United States they will have to sell it for $12,000 to over the import tariff. But this means that the American car manufactures will be be able to raise the prices on their cars, say 15%, and still be cheaper than the foreign car manufacturers. Their manufacturing costs can be the same, but one is $12,000 and the other $11,500. A tariff raises the price of domestic goods because the government has inflated the cost of foreign goods.

Wealth Discrepancy

Before the War for Independence, America primarily produced raw materials and shipped them to the manufacturers in England, so once they separated from England, Washington and the subsequent presidents wanted to encourage Americans to start manufacturing. To do this tariffs were placed on manufactured imports. But this created a wealth discrepancy between the Northern and the Southern states. The North was primarily manufacturing and the South mostly produced raw materials. The North were able to get more profit by raising their prices because the foreign competition had to pay the tariffs. This economic situation caused a discrepancy in wealth between the Southern and the Northern states.

Secession

The issue caused by protective tariffs was not the main cause of the war. It was less important than other issues, but it did play into the decision by the Southern States to leave the Union.

1. Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union, 1861. Source.
2. “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;” Constitution, article 1, section 8. Source.
3. “No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.” Constitution, article 1, section 9. Source.

The Real Causes of the Civil War

Before we can understand who was right in the Civil War and the effects that it has had on America today, we first need to understand what caused it. If you ask the average American today what caused the Civil War, he would tell you it was because the North wanted to free the slaves. But that is not true. The idea that the war was fought over slavery is the biggest misconception about it today. The war was fought over whether or not states had the right to secede. Lincoln wrote this during the war:

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.¹

However, as we will see through the next few weeks, Lincoln frequently lied. He did have a chance to save the Union and preserve slavery, but he rejected it. But most of the Northern soldiers were fighting to preserve the Union, not to end slavery.

If you look deeper and examine the causes of secession, then you will find slavery played a big role in causing the Southern states to attempt to leave the Union. But even that it is not as clear cut as most make it out to be. There were also economic and religious reasons that went into the decision to leave the Union.

There were four main causes of succession and the war which do overlap at some points. We will look at these as a progression, not in order of importance. First there were economic reasons that caused the South to believe that the North was robbing them. Second there were religious differences because of Unitarianism. These religious differences caused the third disagreement which was slavery, and lastly there is the idea of state sovereignty. In the coming days we will examine each of these causes and who was right in each instance.

1. Source

The Nation in 1860

Over the next few weeks up to the secession of South Carolina, we will be posting some introductory posts to bring you up to speed on the causes of the war and what was happening in December, 1860. Check back soon!

John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

Today is the 151th anniversary of the execution of John Brown after his raid on on Harper's Ferry in October, which in many ways helped cause the Civil War. This week people are celebrating how he was a martyr who died to free the slaves. This is actually not true. Brown was a very evil man. Before the raid on Harper's Ferry, he stole what would now be about a million dollars, but he was so persuasive that he convinced the man he stole it from later to lend him money. He was also a lunatic. At one point while he was in Kansas, he took a group of people out during the night and went to all the cabins of the area and murdered in cold blood everyone who was for slavery. Also it just so happened that after that murder Brown and his sons had nice new saddles. There are many other examples which we will leave out for lack of space. My father did a great talk on our trip to the Shenandoah Valley last year, which you an buy here.

John Brown was encouraged to raid Harper's Ferry by the "Secret Six", a group of six prominent Bostonians who were abolitionists and Unitarians. The raid was not a very smart idea. He had 21 men, 16 white and 5 black. He chose Harper's Ferry because at that time it was a large arsenal and weapon factory where about 100,000 guns were stored. His plan was to get the weapons and leave, and then he excepted the slaves to flock to him from their plantations. First of all, he did not have any way to transport the 100,000 weapons. Secondly, if the slaves did come to him, it would just be a mob. Brown had never commanded more than 30 men, and the slaves probably did not know how to use the weapons. It would have been a bigger disaster than it was.

Inside the engine house

The actual raid went well to start with. He captured the arsenal, but then he made a big mistake by not leaving at once. The militia of the area gathered and attacked him. He ended up trapped in the fire engine house with only four men. The next day Col. Robert E. Lee and Lt. Jeb Stuart came up from Washington with 88 marines, and stormed the engine house at the point of the bayonet and captured it. John Brown and his men were tried for murder and slave insurrection and were convicted. They were hung on December 2nd. There is much interesting history about the raid which I studied before we went to the Shenandoah Valley.

Last year we took a tour to Harper's Ferry and it was great to see what actually happened there. Much of the town is the same as it was then, and it is a very nice location.

The Bridge which Brown used to get to Harper's Ferry

The town

The original location of John Brown's Fort (it was moved)

The Potomac River. Harper's Ferry is here the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet

Here is a short video clip from our VAlley Tour:

To view in HD click here.