Essay Two – What arguments did the Confederate States have of America make to support their constitutional right to succeed?
Known as the deadliest conflict to have taken place on American soil, the Civil War lasted from April 12th, 1861 to April 9th, 1865. Quoted at six hundred and twenty thousand casualties, this conflict raged between the Northern Union States and the Southern Confederate States. However, though there was much bloodshed, the Confederate States felt that their reasons for succession and war were justified. From the issue of slavery to the election of eighteen sixty, each factor played a key role in dividing the nation and providing growth for hostilities to take place between the north and the south.
The right of secession from the United States was established through declarations issued by several southern states. These states included Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, and Mississippi. In these declarations, the principle of slavery was protected. For example, South Carolina was the first of the Confederate states to secede. This state argued that if slaves (which are deemed as property) escaped from their captivity and entered into a territory that was slave-free, they were still property. South Carolina defended this theory with the Article Four of the Constitution. Article four states, “no person held to service or labor in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due”. Several other states created declarations which established reasons for secession. In Georgia’s Declaration, the result of the Mexican War was unjust toward southern slave holding states. Georgia believed that the land gained in the aftermath of the war should be split between slave states and non-slave states. However, the Wilmot Proviso went against the simple...