Fight for Your Rights Slavery vs. States Rights The issue faced by the Confederate states was not slavery per se, but who got to determine whether slavery was acceptable, local institutions or a distant central government power. The war was to be fought to protect the institution of slavery, but only as one of the specific cases defining the state’s right to declare a federal law void. A war would be fought in order for the Union to keep the states from seceding, not to destroy the institution of slavery. Many soldiers, Union or Confederate, would not have enlisted at the beginning of the war had it been about abolishing slavery; they believed they were fighting for their rights. Initially, Lincoln’s goal was to preserve the Union in whatever way possible. His proclamation abolishing slavery was only issued half-way into the war rather than at the beginning. Had the primary cause been slavery, Lincoln’s first act would’ve been to free them. “Historians have written many volumes on Lincoln’s timing and motivation, but one thing is clear: slavery was not his first priority.” (Schweitzer). …show more content…
Along with their Article of Secession, South Carolina issued an additional document stating why they decided to leave the Union. In this document, South Carolina remembers the terms their former country was founded on: “that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do." (The Declaration of Causes of Seceding States). They explain that the government goes against the Declaration of Independence by not allowing them to have any rights as