The Most Important Issues In The American Civil War

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Another issue that comes up around the American Civil War is the issue of state sovereignty. Specifically the 10th amendment reserves the powers not specifically given to the federal government to the state or the people. Since control over the slave trade is not specifically mentioned in the constitution, it is natural to conclude that the states where free to decide for themselves whether they would be free or slave holding. However abolitionist states tried to push legislation through congress to ban slavery. This they could do because of the elasticity clause. In effect, the abolitionists were defying the sovereignty of the slave states. The slave states felt that the issue was not the within the federal governments jurisdiction.

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