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Summary Of Apostles Of Disunion By Charles Dew

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A great deal of contradicting information has been layered over the nature of the Civil War. Those would remember it today as a “just cause,” maintain that the issue of succession was solely about states’ rights against what the Southern States saw as an aggressive Republican government under, newly elected, President Abraham Lincoln. There are many surviving documents from the pre-war era supporting the argument as States Rights only and many supporting documents that support the institution of Slavery as a central issue. According to Dew’s, historians are also often split on what was the true nature of the act of succession by the Southern States of the US. It is hard to remove slavery from the many arguments altogether, and perhaps, including …show more content…

Dew opens in his introduction with, “I knew from listening to adult conversations about The War, as it was called, and from my limited reading on the subject that the South had seceded for one reason and one reason only: states’ rights.” (Dew 2001, 1) While this is one child growing up in Florida, it is also prevalent, mainly through omission of details, throughout the South. An enlightened today, wants to remember the Civil War as a valiant cause. It may be difficult to find someone, in the South or the North, willing to promote Slavery today, yet racist groups today are quick to align themselves with the idea of an oppressive Government, controlling too much of an individual states rights to enact their own racist or discriminatory legislation. Driving Slavery out of the forefront of the issues leading to succession allows some from the present to borrow what may be convenient from the past. The idea of a “just cause” precipitating the Civil War pushes back the transgressions of Slavery and can be further manipulated to serve the idea of “valor.” The Southern States made intentions clearer with their assembling of State Succession …show more content…

Throughout early 1861, the State Commissioners spread a narrative of impending destruction to the Southern way of life at the hands of a Republican, abolitionist government. Mississippi’s Commissioner to Georgia stated, ““They have demanded, and now demand, equality between the white and negro races, under our Constitution; equality in representation, equality in the right of suffrage, equality in the honors and emoluments of office, equality in the social circle, equality in the rights of matrimony” (Dew 2001, 29). The remainder of the Commissioners speaking across the South continued such rhetoric. As succession became imminent the States met respectively and adopted their individual Declarations of

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‘Slavery was the root cause of secession’. ‘November 6 1860, Lincoln was elected president of America which resulted in panic emerging in the South’ . The election of Lincoln as president who was a Republican leader meant that ideologies, movements and values from the North would be implemented in the South which meant the abolition of slavery. Slavery was a huge characteristic of the South as the economy; politics; social status and psychological mind-sets were influenced by the process of slavery. The southern white population then derived the idea of secession which meant the South would gain independence from Northern aggression .

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The Northern states, who did not rely on slavery for their economy, were anti-slavery and hence wanted all the nation to be such. The Southern states vehemently opposed this view, as their flow of money relied almost entirely on the use of slave labor. This extreme divide among the people roused talk of division in America. Stephens argues that “slavery and white supremacy were not only the cause for secession, but also the “cornerstone” of the Confederate nation.” He also states, quoting Jefferson: “(this is the) rock upon which the old Union would split”, referring to the existence of African slavery.

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After the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the rise of the Republican party, Southerners feared the tipping of the balance of political power against them; their need for self-determination parallel the colonists’ belief of rebelling against the oppressive government of Great Britain. However, the Civil War represented something more: the clash of the feudalistic, agrarian South with the industrialized, capitalistic North. These two powers differed socially, politically, and economically, and were especially conflicted over slavery. These two sections of the United States were divided against one another, and could not survive this way. Therefore, it is more accurate to state that though the Civil War resembled some aspects of the American Revolution, it was a clash between two forces who could not exist with one another in their current state, leading inevitably to conflict between the

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