Was the civil war unconstitutional?

Question

Im struggling with this war for a couple reasons. Now, yes it is dehumanizing to many blacks at the time, BUT, should have the government stepped in and forced the south, as well as the rest of the country, to deem slavery illegal. Shouldnt this have been a voted on through legislature. I know slavery doesnt sound like a good term, but with that thought, many slave owners treated slaves well, and, as we all know, there are as many racists in the north as in the south.

I dont like the idea of slavery,(although I feel that way under our current government), but was it constitutional?

Answer 1

While slavery was an undertone of the times, a very common misconception about the civil war is that it was started because of slavery.  Myth.  The Civil War was started because South Carolina seceded from the United States and violated the  parameters of the Constitution.  While slavery was one of the reasons it certainly was not the main one.  So the answer to your question is yes, the Civil War was constitutional.

Answer 2

That's not quite what happened. Slavery was on its way to being voted out. The south seceded before that could happen. The supremacy clause of the constitution makes the laws of the US federal government supreme over the states. States do not have the right, once they ratify the constitution, to simply abandon it without the federal government fighting to hold them to it.

In reality, there was no constitutional debate in the supreme court about the authority to fight the war, so this theoretical discussion of constitutionality is purely academic. But the war was not unconstitutional.

The connection between the war and slavery is more convoluted than the version you mentioned:

Through a series of compramises, including the Missouri compramise, as well as the nature of the economy in many of the new states entering the union, it became clear eventually there would be enough free states to vote to end slavery, whether the south liked it or not. Their economy depending on slavery and they did not want the north messing with their way of life. When Lincoln was elected on a platform of ending slavery, without a single southern electoral vote, that was the last straw and the south suceded.

Lincoln went to war expressly to hold the union together, not to end slavery. He issued the emancipation proclamation as a political tool. He wanted to end slavery, of course, but that wasn't what the proclamation did. Specifically, the proclamation excluded the four border states that had slaves but remained loyal to the union. It only freed the slaves in the confederate states where he had no real power. The effect was 2-fold. It gave many slaves the courage to run away. Many of them joined the Union army and helped win the war. It also galvanized the north behind a moral cause. Many people were starting to lose interest in a war to hold onto states that didn't want to be part of the country, but with ending slavery as the moral principal, the morale of the soldiers increased.

Slavery officially ended with the 13th amendment, whose ratification was a part of the southern unconditional surrender. (Along with the 14th and 15th amendments)

Answer 3

In large part, the Civil War was fought to determine whether the secession of the Southern states was allowable, since there's nothing in the Constitution about being able to leave the Union.  From a Union perspective, the war was Constitutional to the extent that the it didn't specifically say you can't wage war against renegade states.

Answer 4

It was both unconstitutional and anything but civil.

Answer 5

There are alot of answers that attempt to cover this but i will keep this short and to the point, a state had the right to secede. The constitution of the state of Alabama wrote for acceptance into the union in section two of article one says, All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit; and, therefore, they have, at all times an unalienable and indefeasible right to alter, reform, or abolish their form of government, in such manner as they may think expedient. This Constitution was accepted by the united states and its clearly stated that people have the power at all times to abolish government.

Answer 6

The Confederate States wanted to pull out of the Union.  Slavery was just one issue, though admittedly a large one.

Answer 7

The Civil War was not unconstitutional, because they did aid in voting for the president.

You may see different parts of states trying to cede away from said state.  It isn't going to happen, because technically the states "own" the territory that is trying to cede.  That is the reason we pay taxes on our properties, it is like "paying rent" to the state, and the state says you can live there.

Also, The South attacked several military bases that belonged to the Federal Government.  It was like wakine a sleeping tiger.

Answer 8

Many uninformed people think that the Civil war was about slavery.  This is NOT true:

In actuality the Southern States fought to repel aggression & invasion and also for self-government, just as the fathers of the American revolution had done.

President Abraham Lincoln himself confessed at first that he had no constitutional right to make war against a State, so he resorted to the subterfuge of calling for troops to suppress "combinations" of persons in the Southern States "too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary" processes.

Now then, with that said, here are the perspectives from which the North and South went to war in 1861.

1) The North. The Northern States held approximately 80-90% of the industrial capabilities of the States. But, these industrial capabilities were useless without the raw products coming from the South. Tobacco, cotton, hemp, etc were what the North used to maintain its economic stranglehold and wealth. Without the South's raw materials, it would have been economic and political disaster. And this simply would no be tolerated by the North. The statement "War is money" was as valid then as it is now.

2) The South. The Southern States were simple workers who provided products that were shipped overseas. The North did not care what type of labor supplied these products. Slavery, to the North, was a Division Of Labor. And after many years of abuse and oppression, the South had tired from being subjected to Northern rules of politics, trade and economy. The "fat cats" of the North were strangling the South. And the South knew this. They simply tired of this folly, and proceeded to establish a new government for themselves as did the colonists when they wanted their freedom from King George III of Britain.

So, as you can see, slavery was not the issue for the War Of 1861 - 1865. Many want you to believe that the war was totally fought over the issue of slavery, but they are not the true purveyors of history. The same holds true today as it did years ago

Answer 9

Considering the country was split and there were two presidents at the time, that would have been impossible.

Surely you know the south succeeded from the Union?

Answer 10

I think you need to brush up on your history.

First off, the North had yet to force the South to free their slaves before the war began.The Emancipation Proclamation was issued druing the war, and only applied to Confederate states. Kentucky was part of the Union during the war, and they're slaves remained slaves until the passing of a Constiutional Ammendment.

Remember that there was pressure of that happening, but there weremany other factors as to why the states seceded. Slavery was a big issue, but not the only issue, but you are semi correct. IT was the idea of States' Rights, and the idea that the Federal Government was overstepping its bounds.

Secondly, when you say that some slaveowners treated their slaves well, you are so off base in so many ways. They may have treated them well, FOR SLAVES!! THEY WERE STILL SLAVES!!!! They were treated like livestock regardless. They were human beings that were OWNED by other human beings. I don't care if they fed them grapes all day, they still saw it fit to own another human being.

And to say there as many racists in the North as the South, well whether that is true or not, you can't ever really get to the heart of that, but I do not deny racism that still exists up here (and I'm in NYC), however, the idea wasn't about blacks being inferior or not, the idea was that they are human beings, and thus have the right to be free, like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence state.

Thirdly, the Civil War was begun by the South. Thery fired the first shot on Fort Sumter. They delcared war, not the North.

Answer 11

The civil war wasn't about slavery, so you really need to find out the REAL reason the Civil War was fought!

Many slave owners treated them well by not allowing them to marry, splitting families and raping them at whim!

Being a racist does not equate to condoning slavery. And I doubt their are as many bigots in the North as there are in the South!

If you remember correctly those states succeeded from the Union!

"AMENDMENT XIII

Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.

Note: A portion of Article IV, section 2, of the Constitution was superseded by the 13th amendment.

Section 1.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

No it wasn't Unconstitutional! And who fired the first shot, an act of war?  "It was fired by the South Carolinians on Morris Island.  They fired on the Union Ship "Star of the West" as it attempted to reinforce Major Anderson at Fort Sumter."

"To me, there can be only one answer, only one passion that could inspire a devotion even unto death. This war was fought to decide for all time not only what America was going to be, but to decide on the most fundamental level what it was going to mean to be an American from that time forward. This War, not the revolution of 1776, was the

watershed in our history. This is when everything was decided and fixed, this is when we became the People that we are, even to this day. Up until this point in our history there had been many competing ideas of what America was and what Americans were, almost as many competing ideas as there were individuals. That War ended all of that. And the men who were fighting knew that it would."

I think you are trying to rewrite history, as they do in many schools!

Answer 12

The Bill of Rights states "All men are created equal".  Lincoln cited this phrase in his emancipation proclamation.  Slavery is unconstitutional, the south was constitutionally obliged to end slavery.

Regardless of how well slaves are treated, they are denied their freedom.