The Civil War
wasn't about slavery
Walter E. Williams
The problems that led to the
Civil War are the same problems today ---- big, intrusive government.
The reason we don't face the specter of another Civil War is because
today's Americans don't have yesteryear's spirit of liberty and
constitutional respect, and political statesmanship is in short supply.
Actually, the war of 1861 was
not a civil war. A civil war is a conflict between two or more factions
trying to take over a government. In 1861, Confederate President
Jefferson Davis was no more interested in taking over Washington than
George Washington was interested in taking over England in 1776. Like
Washington, Davis was seeking independence. Therefore, the war of 1861
should be called "The War Between the States" or the "War for Southern
Independence." The more bitter southerner might call it the "War of
Northern Aggression."
History books have misled
today's Americans to believe the war was fought to free slaves.
Statements from the time
suggest otherwise. In President Lincoln's first inaugural address, he
said, "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the
institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have
no lawful right to do so."
During the war, in an 1862
letter to the New York Daily Tribune editor Horace Greeley, Lincoln
said, "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it
is not either to save or destroy slavery." A recent article by
Baltimore's Loyola College Professor Thomas DiLorenzo titled "The Great
Centralizer," in The Independent Review (Fall 1998), cites quotation
after quotation of similar northern sentiment about slavery.
Lincoln's intentions, as well
as that of many northern politicians, were summarized by Stephen Douglas
during the presidential debates. Douglas accused Lincoln of wanting to
"impose on the nation a uniformity of local laws and institutions and a
moral homogeneity dictated by the central government" that "place at
defiance the intentions of the republic's founders." Douglas was right,
and Lincoln's vision for our nation has now been accomplished beyond
anything he could have possibly dreamed.
A precursor
for a War Between the States came in 1832, when South Carolina called a
convention to nullify tariff acts of 1828 and 1832, referred to as the
"Tariffs of Abominations." A compromise lowering the tariff was reached,
averting secession and possibly war. The North favored protective
tariffs for their manufacturing industry. The South, which exported
agricultural products to and imported manufactured goods from Europe,
favored free trade and was hurt by the tariffs. Plus, a
northern-dominated Congress enacted laws similar to Britain's Navigation
Acts to protect northern shipping interests.
Shortly after Lincoln's
election, Congress passed the highly protectionist Morrill tariffs.
That's when the South
seceded, setting up a new government. Their constitution was nearly
identical to the U.S. Constitution except that it outlawed protectionist
tariffs, business handouts and mandated a two-thirds majority vote for
all spending measures.
The only good coming from the
War Between the States was the abolition of slavery. The great principle
enunciated in the Declaration of Independence that "Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed" was overturned by force of arms. By destroying the states'
right to secession, Abraham Lincoln opened the door to the kind of
unconstrained, despotic, arrogant government we have today, something
the framers of the Constitution could not have possibly imagined.
States should again challenge
Washington's unconstitutional acts through nullification. But you tell
me where we can find leaders with the love, courage and respect for our
Constitution like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John C. Calhoun. |