The principle, on which the war was waged by the
North, was simply this: That men may rightfully be compelled to
submit to, and support, a government that they do not want; and that
resistance, on their part, makes them traitors and criminals. No
principle, that is possible to be named, can be more self-evidently
false than this; or more self-evidently fatal to all political
freedom. Yet it triumphed in the field, and is now assumed to be
established. If it really be established, the number of slaves,
instead of having been diminished by the war, has been greatly
increased; for a man, thus subjected to a government that he does
not want, is a slave. And there is no difference, in principle ---
but only in degree --- between political and chattel slavery. The
former, no less than the latter, denies a man's ownership of himself
and the products of his labor; and asserts that other men may own
him, and dispose of him and his property, for their uses, and at
their pleasure. Lysander Spooner (Nineteenth-Century lawyer,
abolitionist, entrepreneur)
Nothing fills me with deeper sadness than to see a
Southern man apologizing for the defense we made of our inheritance.
Our cause was so just, so sacred, that had I known all that has come
to pass, had I known what was to be inflicted upon me, all that my
country was to suffer, all that our posterity was to endure, I would
do it all over again. - Jefferson Davis
I am with the South in life or in death, in victory or
defeat. I never owned a negro and care nothing for them, but these
people have been my friends and have stood up to me on all
occasions. In addition to this, I believe the North is about to wage
a brutal and unholy war on a people who have done them no wrong, in
violation of the Constitution and the fundamental principles of the
government...We propose no invasion of the North, no attack on them,
and only ask to be let alone. Patrick R. Cleburne
If by the mere force of numbers a majority should
deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it
might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution. Abraham
Lincoln (1809-1865), First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1861
I tried all in my power to avert this war. I saw it
coming, for twelve years I worked night and day to prevent it, but I
could not. The North was mad and blind; it would not let us govern
ourselves, and so the war came, and now it must go on till the last
man of this generation falls in his tracks, and his children seize
the musket and fight our battle, unless you acknowledge our right to
self government. We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting
for Independence, and that, or extermination President Jefferson
Davis, Confederate States of America
Surrender means that the history of this heroic
struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be
trained by Northern school teachers; will learn from Northern school
books their version of the War; will be impressed by all the
influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as
traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit subjects for derision.
-General Pat Cleburne, CSA
If centralism is ultimately to prevail; if our entire
system of free Institutions as established by our common ancestors
is to be subverted, and an Empire is to be established in their
stead; if that is to be the last scene of the great tragic drama now
being enacted: then, be assured, that we of the South will be
acquitted, not only in our own consciences, but in the judgment of
mankind, of all responsibility for so terrible a catastrophe, and
from all guilt of so great a crime against humanity. -Alexander
Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States of America
I saw in States rights the only availing check upon
the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with
hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy
.
Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our
liberty, our progress, and our civilization, and I mourn for the
stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over
that which was saved at Waterloo. -Lord Acton, in a letter to Robert
E Lee right after the war
We protest solemnly in the face of mankind, that we
desire peace at any sacrifice, save that of honor. In independence
we seek no conquest, no aggrandizement, no concession of any kind
from the states with which we have lately been confederated. All we
ask is to be let alone that those who never held power over us
shall not now attempt our subjugation by arms. This we will, we must
resist to the direst extremity. The moment that this pretension is
abandoned, the sword will drop from our grasp, and we shall be ready
to enter into treaties of amnesty and commerce that cannot but be
mutually beneficial. So long as this pretension is maintained, with
a firm reliance on that Divine Power which covers with its
protection the just cause, we must continue to struggle for our
inherent right to freedom, independence, and self government.
President Jefferson Davis' first address to the Confederate Congress
In our government-controlled schools we are taught
that Lincoln was our greatest president because his war ended
slavery and saved the Union. As usual, the other side of the story
the side that reflects poorly on the government somehow gets lost.
Richard J. Maybury, The Abe Lincoln Hoax
So the case stands, and under all the passion of the
parties and the cries of battle lie the two chief moving causes of
the struggle. Union means so many millions a year lost to the South;
secession means the loss of the same millions to the North. The
love of money is the root of this as of many many other evils
the
quarrel between North and South is, as it stands, solely a fiscal
quarrel. Charles Dickens, as editor of All the Year Round, a
British periodical in 1862
For 134 years the American people have been led to
believe that the right of secession had been overturned by a
"verdict of arms," but that isn't true
It is true the shot fired
at Fort Sumter was a mistake since it provided the pretext for the
Southland to be invaded by foreign troops, but the right of
secession realized through the ballot box remains an essential part
of our constitutional order. George Kalas, Chairman Emeritus, The
Southern Party
The American people, North and South, went into the
[Civil] war as citizens of their respective states, they came out as
subjects
what they thus lost they have never got back. H.L.
Mencken
The future inhabitants of [both] the Atlantic and
Mississippi states will be our sons. We think we see their happiness
in their union, and we wish it. Events may prove otherwise; and if
they see their interest in separating why should we take sides? God
bless them both, and keep them in union if it be for their good, but
separate them if it be better. Thomas Jefferson
The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the
States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their
Nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and
the same people. If one of the States chose to withdraw its name
from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right of
doing so
Alex de Tocqueville, Democracy In America
If [the Declaration of Independence] justifies the
secession from the British empire of 3,000,000 of colonists in 1776,
we do not see why it would not justify the secession of 5,000,000 of
Southrons from the Federal Union in 1861. New York Tribune,
December 17, 1860
The error is in the assumption that the General
Government is a party to the constitutional compact. The States
formed the compact, acting as sovereign and independent communities.
John C. Calhoun
The procedure of secession was to have an election for
delegates to a state convention, to meet in convention, and to adopt
ordinances of secession. This was done in accord with the Southern
understanding of what would be in keeping with the United States
Constitution. It had, after all, been ratified by the states acting
through conventions. Could they not "un-ratify" it secede from the
Union in the same fashion? Clarence Carson, A Basic History Of
The United States
Our government is an agency of delegated and strictly
limited powers. Its founders did not look to its preservation by
force; but the chain they wove to bind these States together was one
of love and mutual good offices
Jefferson Davis
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