Quote:
|
Originally Posted by MattyMattyChooChoo
If slavery had nothing to do with it, then what started the states rights debate?
Just like the evolution debate, there had to be something that started the motion.
|
"The south maintained with the depth of religious conviction that the Union formed under the Constitution was a "Union of consent" and not of force, that the original states were not the creatures but the creators of the Union, that these states had gained their independence, their freedom, and their sovereignty from the mother country, and had not surrendered these on entering the Union, that by the express terms of the Constitution all rights and powers not delegated were reserved to the states, and the South challenged the North to find one trace of authority in that Constitution for invading and coercing a sovereign state."
Slavery was merely a contemporary controversial and inflammatory issue of the day that was used as a pretext by Lincoln and the North to go to war with the Confederacy, much like "WMD's" was used as a pretense to go to war with Iraq.
Does that answer your question?