Southerners, though, felt that their very way of life would be compromised if they remained members of the Union. Strong disagreements about tariff rates were perpetuated in Congress. Also, the issue of states’ rights could not be resolved; Southerners believed that it was up to new states to decide their …show more content…
You grow increasing distressed by your parent’s rules, regulations, and the fact that they continuously attempt to hinder your way of life until, eventually, you move out to form and start your own, independent life. This scenario can be compared to the Southern States’ secession from the rest of the Union in the winter of 1860. The definition of the word “secession” or “secede” has not changed much over the last two hundred years. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, secession is defined as a “formal withdrawal from an organization”. Following the election of Abraham Lincoln earlier in the year, the South Carolina General Assembly voted to secede from the Union and form its own nation: The Confederate States of America. Six other states then followed in South Carolina’s footsteps and seceded before April 1861: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. This new nation elected Jefferson Davis, a southern native, as its …show more content…
The courageous citizens living in the Colonies elected to committed treason, and could have been hung for such crimes by the English Government had their plot for independence failed. Thankfully, it did not.
Historians who argue that secession was illegal will cite the Declaration of Independence when arguing that our nation is composed of “united” states in the fact that thirteen state-shaped and sized territories came together to defend themselves against a larger oppressor. This fact is true; yet during the Revolutionary period, a vast majority of colonial citizens agreed with one another one what action to take about the issues facing them, unlike the Civil War demographic. The territories that formed the fighting militia who defeated England were not even considered States yet. Delaware, the first state, did not declare its statehood until six years after the Revolutionary War ended. Shortly after the war ended the colonies disbanded from any semblance of cooperation and unity until Delaware declared its statehood in