WAR OF SECESSION 



6145 



WAR OF SECESSION 



Ohio was admitted; in 1812, Louisiana. Then, 

 swinging back and forth came Indiana, Missis- 

 sippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, Missouri, Ar- 

 kansas, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Iowa. The 

 Missouri Compromise (1820) sought a solution 

 of the territorial question, in the following 

 provision : 



Missouri was empowered to form a state gov- 

 ernment without prohibition of slavery, but there- 

 after no slavery should exist in any part of the 

 Louisiana Purchase north of latitude 36" 30'. 



This law calmed the contending factions for 

 a number of years; it was in force until the 

 passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, in 1854. 



The real grievances of the South were not 

 always expressed in Northern legislation ; many 

 irritating circumstances increased the bitterness 

 between the sections. For example, it was held 

 that Northerners were aiding in unlawful acts in 

 helping slaves to escape from their masters and 

 flee to Canada (see UNDERGROUND RAILROAD) ; 

 that Northern legislatures, in passing laws which 



OHIO 

 ti 



IA 



X 



Atlanta 



IN THE WEST 



made ineffective the Fugitive Slave laws of 

 Congress, violated the Constitution; that Con- 

 gress could not legally pass antislavery legisla- 

 tion, yet it continually received and made pub- 

 lic hundreds of petitions asking for such illegal 

 action; that, finally, the South felt it was right 

 to secede from the Union because the Consti- 

 tntmnal guarantees had been repeatedly broken 

 by the North and hence were no longer binding. 

 .irguriu nt was to the effect 

 that there was a higher law than any made by 

 man, and it was right to limit to the smallest 

 possible bounds what the North considered an 

 Northerners helped slaves to escape on 

 the ground that their masters had no moral 

 right to them, and that to assist the negroes in 

 obtaining their freedom was a service to hu- 

 manity. 

 385 



Another phase of the quarrel did not touch 

 the question of slavery, but was purely eco- 

 nomic. The North was assuming the charac- 

 ter of a manufacturing community, while the 

 South became more and more agricultural. The 

 tariffs placed upon imported manufactures for 

 the protection of American industries increased 

 the cost of commodities. The South's only in- 

 terest was as a consumer, and its people de- 

 manded lower tariffs. South Carolina rebelled 

 and declared the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 

 null and void, so far as they related to that 

 state, and President Jackson was obliged to 

 use stern measures to defeat nullification. The 

 question of a state's right to nullify any law 

 of the nation which was contrary to local inter- 

 ests was based on the assumption that the 

 United States was a union of independent com- 

 monwealths and that the general government 

 was merely their agent (see STATES' RIGHTS). 

 Entertaining such views, it seems not so strange 

 that when the breaking point was reached t In- 

 states of the South should have felt them- 

 selves free to assert their independence and to 

 form a new government. The North, on the 

 contrary, assumed the Federal government to 

 be supreme, believed the Union to be insepa- 

 rable and secession a plain violation of tin 

 national compact. 



Movement towards Disunion. The Presiden- 

 tial election in the autumn of 1860 resulted in 

 the choice of Abraham Lincoln for President 

 over three other candidates, and in this there 

 was no comfort to the South. It was inevitable 

 that there must be disunion, if the slave-hold- 

 ing states were to maintain what they pro- 

 claimed to be their rights. The first step to- 

 wards a separate, government for them was 

 taken in a convention called to meet in Colum- 

 bia, S. C., on December 17, 1860. Because of 

 an epidemic in that city the meeting was held 

 at Charleston, on December 20. Here the fol- 

 lowing Ordinance of Secession was passed: 



We, the people of the State of South Carolina, 

 in convention assembled, do declare and ordain. 

 ;ini It Is hereby declared and ordained, that the 

 ordinance adopted by u* In n. on the 



twenty-thlnl day of May. In the year of our Lord 

 1788. whereby the Constitution of the United 

 States was ratlfled. and also all acts and parts 

 of acts of the General Assembly of this State 

 ratifying am. n-lm.-nts of the said Constitution. 

 are hereby repealed; and that the Union now 

 subsisting between South Carolina and other 

 States, under the name of the United States of 

 America. Is hereby dissolved. 



The new Confederacy began to assume tan- 

 gible form on the day that South Carolina 



