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Who would I side with in the Civil War?

ChickamaugaI’ve always known that the Civil War was about more than slavery, but until recently I had never studied the Civil War in any depth. However, now that I have an idea of the issues involved, I can finally say with which side I would have sided. But before I can tell you which side that is, we need to take a look at a few concepts.

First, we need to establish that the American government was founded on the idea that government gains its legitimacy through the consent of the governed. Without that consent, the government loses its right to govern. This idea is clearly articulated in the Declaration of Independence.

Second, when the southern states seceded, they no longer consented to being governed. Consequently, the US no longer had any legitimate claim on these states and had no right to intervene in their affairs. If government receives its legitimacy through consent of the governed and that consent is lost, then that legitimacy is also lost.

However, the southern states, when they chose to secede, did not have the consent of their governed because slaves were not allowed to vote. Therefore, this decision was essentially nullified. This then gave the Union the right to intervene.

The US government was also established on the principle that all men are created equal with unalienable rights. What was meant by “all men,” however, had never been established. The nation was left to decide whether or not blacks were men.

This had been left up to the individual states to answer until just before the war came about. During the years preceding the war, the northern states had come to believe that the phrase literally meant all men, regardless of race. On the other hand, the southern states did not want this and thought that the decision should be theirs to make for themselves. It was largely due to this conflict that the war finally came about.

So who would I have sided with? I would have sided with the Union. When the southern states chose to secede, they did so without the proper consent of the governed, thus nullifying the decision. The ideas upon which the nation had been founded needed to be defined on a federal level, and the north was able to bring that about through the war.

Discussion — 5 Responses

  • Caleb Hare February 11, 2014 on 1:32 pm

    Hey Joseph, good article, but I think you made a logical error (no offense meant at all!) You mentioned that because the south did not get the concent of the slaves, that it didn’t secede with the consent of the people. My question is, considering that there were 5 million people in the south, of which 800 thousand were slaves, and that the south overwhelmingly voted to secede (Texas was 4 to 5 in favor) if you do the math, assuming that every single slave voted in favor of the union (which probably wouldnt have happened, there were still 5 slave states inside the union in 1863), the south would still secede by a large margin. Could you explain your point a little better?

    Reply
  • Caleb Hare February 11, 2014 on 1:35 pm

    Hey Joseph, good article, but I think you made a logical error (no offense meant at all!) You mentioned that because the south did not get the concent of the slaves, that it didn’t secede with the consent of the people. My question is, considering that there were 5 million people in the south, of which 800 thousand were slaves, and that the south overwhelmingly voted to secede (Texas was 4 to 5 in favor) if you do the math, assuming that every single slave voted in favor of the union (which probably wouldnt have happened, there were still 5 slave states inside the union in 1863), the south would still secede by a large margin. Could you explain your point a little better?

    Reply
  • Caleb Hare February 11, 2014 on 7:07 pm

    Hey Joseph, good article, but I think you made a logical error (no offense meant at all!) You mentioned that because the south did not get the consent of the slaves, that it didn’t secede with the consent of the people. My question is, considering that there were 5 million people in the south, of which 800 thousand were slaves, and that the south overwhelmingly voted to secede (Texas and most of them were 4 to 5 in favor) if you do the math, assuming that every single slave voted in favor of the union (which probably wouldn’t have happened, there were still 5 slave states inside the union in 1863), the south would still secede by a large margin (aprox. 1.8 million to stay in the union, and 4 million to secede). Also, slaves at the time, were not allowed to vote period (I dont agree with it, but thats the way it was) that being said, why would you place slaves inside the vote numbers? )Could you explain your point a little better?

    Reply
  • Caleb Hare February 11, 2014 on 9:15 pm

    Hey Joseph, good article, but I think you made a logical error (no offense meant at all!) You mentioned that because the south did not get the consent of the slaves, that it didn’t secede with the consent of the people. My question is, considering that there were 5 million people in the south, of which 800 thousand were slaves, and that the south overwhelmingly voted to secede (Texas and most of them were 4 to 5 in favor) if you do the math, assuming that every single slave voted in favor of the union (which probably wouldn’t have happened, there were still 5 slave states inside the union in 1863), the south would still secede by a large margin (aprox. 1.8 million to stay in the union, and 4 million to secede). Also, slaves at the time, were not allowed to vote period (I dont agree with it, but thats the way it was) that being said, why would you place slaves inside the vote numbers? )Could you explain your point a little better?

    Reply
  • Caleb Hare February 11, 2014 on 9:24 pm

    Hey Joseph, good article, but I think you made a logical error (no offense meant at all!) You mentioned that because the south did not get the consent of the slaves, that it didn’t secede with the consent of the people. My question is, considering that there were 5 million people in the south, of which 800 thousand were slaves, and that the south overwhelmingly voted to secede (Texas and most of them were 4 to 5 in favor) if you do the math, assuming that every single slave voted in favor of the union (which probably wouldn’t have happened, there were still 5 slave states inside the union in 1863), the south would still secede by a large margin (aprox. 1.8 million to stay in the union, and 4 million to secede). Also, slaves at the time, were not allowed to vote period (I dont agree with it, but thats the way it was) that being said, why would you place slaves inside the vote numbers? )Could you explain your point a little better?

    Reply