reply to post by Misoir
They seperated because they didn't believe in human rights and the north just tried to keep the nation together and secure human rights.
The Civil War was not a war over human rights. IF it was, it was a contest on whose human rights violations were acceptable. The north had no
intention of being the morally correct side, it was just using a detestable idea (slavery) to enrage the population of the north to commit more
terrible acts.
If it was about the power of the federal government then they were probably mad because the feds wanted to step in and stop them from using slaves. I
could be wrong, but I doubt it.
I would like you to research the history of banking, tariffs, and monetary policy in the US during the 19th century. The answer lies in there.
While I support what the north did, it was unconstitutional. They had the right to leave the union. But they were doing unconstitutional things too,
such as slavery.
They did not attack the south because of its ideas on slavery. They attacked it because Lincoln wanted to preserve the union at the expense of
hundreds of thousands of lives. There is no excuse for morally reprehensible behavior. Slavery is wrong, but the north's barbarism was wrong as well.
It is possible for both sides to be wrong.
If it was about slavery, why couldn't the USA have freed those people without bloodshed? Most of the rest of the world managed this task.
I have ancestors who fought for the north, and I do not let 150 year old propaganda or some vane sense of 'northern nationalist pride' cloud my
judgment on historical events.
In fact, the earliest of abolitionists were against war altogether on the same basis that they were against slavery. The anti-slave movement took to
the fields of battle by people using it only as a method for control in order to maintain their own wealth.
This "representative" might be a bigot, or he might not be, but his statement isn't that far from the truth. It's, at least, more accurate than
calling it a war over the moral issue of slavery.