Secession Dbq

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Secession is the withdrawal from the Union of eleven Southern states from 1860 to 1861, which brought on the American Civil War.1 To those who maintain the justice of the separation of the Confederate States of America, it is important to be assured that the right of a State to secede from the Union with the United States of America, whenever the State felt fit to exercise that right. It was beyond the power of denial from any source. At the time of the adoption of the United States Constitution, each state was a sovereign and independent State, and acted as such in adopting the Constitution. The Declaration of Independence proclaims the States to be “free and independent States”. The Articles of Confederation of 1778 declared that “each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence…”2 President Lincoln felt that secession was unlawful, but the secessionists claimed that, according to the Constitution, the States had every right to leave the Union. There were multiple events, such as the Missouri Compromise (1820), Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831), Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), and Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), that led to the secession of the Southern states and the Civil War.3 With the end of the war came the end of slavery, secession and nullification by the states. …show more content…

Tensions began to rise between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the years prior to the Missouri Compromise of 1820. In 1819, Missouri requested to be admitted to the Union as a slave states, which would upset the balance between free and slave states. As a two-part compromise, Congress granted Missouri’s request, but also Maine admitted Maine as a free state. It also passed an amendment that drew a line across the former

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