“Secession and Disunion,” Questions
South Carolina claims that the federal government is threatening the interests of the slave states. The southerners believe that the government is breaking the law of the constitution by taking away their slaves. The supreme court previously ruled that slaves were property in the Dred Scott trial, and the south found it wrong of the north to not follow the ruling. The south thinks it is unfair that the president of the United States favors the north, by viewing slavery as a sinful act. The southern people feel that if slavery is abolished, their entire society will cease to exist in the fashion it once did.
2. Lincoln said in his Inaugural Address, states that if the union is disassembled, it is less perfect than it once was. He thinks anything should be done to keep the nation together. The state of South Carolina doesn’t care if they are a separate nation, and does not hold back from succeeding when they are no longer permitted to practice slavery.
3. Jefferson Davis reiterates the belief that the Union has grown reckless and favors the north over the south. He states the confederacy’s belief that it is their right to own slaves, and if they will break away unless the union accepts that.
4. Lincoln believes that slavery is the only issue dividing the north and south, and when he was sworn in as president, he set out to allow slavery in the states where it already existed.
5. Lincoln is trying to be conciliatory to the south when he claims that he will allow slavery to exist in the states where it already does. He does not come to follow this claim.
6. Lincoln believed it was the right of the states to stay in the union at all costs, and was unconstitutional for states to leave the union. Jefferson Davis believed that it was the right of the states to leave the union if the government became corrupt and took away their rights. He believed the current government was doing this, hence why he seceeded....