Secession Dbq Essay

Seceding the Nation

I remember it clear as day, “As the telegraph flashed news of Lincoln’s election,” we, “South Carolina legislature called a convention to take the state out of the Union. Within six weeks, the six other states of the lower South had also called conventions” (McPherson, 139). Electors quickly nominated delegates after concentrated campaigns. By February 9, 1861, three months subsequent to Lincoln’s election, representatives from these states met in Montgomery, Alabama, assuming an interim constitution for the Confederate States of America, selecting Jefferson Davis as the makeshift head of state.

While secession advanced with amazing rapidity in the subordinate South, the arrival of esprit de corps disguised three interior

divisions. The first, and most fundamental, was the immediate secession.

“Proponents of this viewpoint believed that each state should secede on its own without waiting for collective action by the South as a whole” (McPherson, 140). These territories held major populaces of slave districts, and were folks whom preserved Democrats, without slaves, and Whig partisans, with slaves, whom were in the drive to end slavery by the apparent Republican risk to white sovereignty and oppression. Cooperation secessionists consisted of three subtypes. Firstly, the cooperative secessionists whom were ones who leaned toward secession, but were not willing to partake until others did so. Secondly, the ultimatumists whom wondered what Lincoln would do in response to these operations, as president. The last subtype of cooperation secession was the conditional unionists, they wanted to stay in the union unless or until there was an attack on the south. Unconditional unionists were men whom wanted to stay in the United States and wanted no part of

secession at all. I would best describe my beliefs, at the time, as a cooperative secessionists, if others were willing to join, and thought it was of worthy cause, I would join with them. This is so I would not be punished, in most circumstances, by leading or joining a few in this activity of leaving the union. If many leave, it is harder to punish, other than in the cases of war. When war is created by the federal powers, it shows a farther disunion between them and the confederacy leaving. The union should create a situation in which the confederates want to return to the union, especially in the times of secession.
We, as in the south, felt that secession was completely normal, legal, and righteous, as stated in the Compact Theory of the constitution.

We shadowed the front-runners of hundreds of Republicans, quoting their speeches and editorials for proof that the Republicans were the revolutionists, not us, the confederates. Seward and Lincoln come to mind in particularly. They were leaders of our part. If anyone truly represented Republican intentions, they did. Seward had predicted the ultimate victory of the free-labor ideology, “I know and all the world knows, that a revolution has begun. I know and all the world knows that revolutions never go backward” (McPherson, 143). Seward was telling the truth hear, a revolution meant change, and once it is implemented there is no looking back. Lincoln addressed the two nations in his House Divided speech saying that “Republicans intended to place slavery ‘where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction”’ (McPherson, 143). Lincolns refer to Republicans having plans of putting slavery to rest, in favor of the northern states at the time, versus the south who favored slavery, and seceded the

union.
Also, it was events like the Charleston Mercury in which threw tea overboard in 1776, that have revolutionized us, the South, to think in a way that we can secede, for our country revolutionized from the very beginning. We seceded from England, Spain, France, and so forth, and now the Confederates, we have seceded from the Union of the United States of America. For, we believe in the rights of the states, the implication of slavery if we wish, and less nationalistic approaches with superiors. The Northerners questioned us, and our secession of the nation, with regards to the kind of president and Congress they have leading their nation. They simply do nothing to encourage our secession, but nothing to alienate the unionists among us Southerners. The Northerners simply wait for us to return, as if we will come waddling back, without any plea, bargain, or benefit.
Our nation, and thus the confederate section, through this secession, and past revolts, has become one of which that is legally, socially, and politically changed. As two separate, but similar sections of the United States, we have created ourselves a civil war. Lincoln calls for his troops, as the South secedes.