The Missouri Compromise; the Compromise of 1850;and the the Dred Scott decision were issues but did not lead to the Civil War. As a lad I could not understand why over 600,000 union and confederate soldiers would give their lives so that a few rich plantation owners could have slaves. The vast majority of southern soldiers were very poor dirt farmers who had a difficult time coming up with money to even buy a mule, let alone a slave. So I visited the public library and said I did not want to see books that had rewritten history. I asked for documents as to what issues were on the floor of the Senate when South Carolina walked out and seceded. With the help of library officials we traced recorded senate actions back to that period. We discovered the first issue was the senate, which was dominated by the North, passed a tariff bill which would have prevented the South from shipping cotton to the UK, France and Germany. (Northern textile mills were idle since most cotton was being shipped abroad for much higher prices.) The southern states then met in state legislatures and nullified the exorbitant tariff bill. State Nullification of Federal bills was permitted in those days. But upon returning to the US Senate they encountered much opposition and the Senate passed a bill to void the nullification act. South Carolina then walked out. Other southern states followed and they seceded from the Union. Lincoln then sent additional troops to blockade the fort at Charleston SC to prevent the South from shipping cotton without paying the taxes, The confederates ordered Anderson, commander of Fort Sumter, to leave the fort and return north since their act was considered an invasion on foreign soil. Confederates had to fire on the fort and the rest is history. That is the reason the War began at the Charleston SC harbor. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff_of_Abominations
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 00:14:49 +0000
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