Causes Of The Secession

Most states in the US opted to join the union without any coercion, thus obtaining the liberty to secede anytime they saw appropriate. The United States Constitution does not have any regulations in place to expel a state from the union. Further, it fails to outline any requirements that a state should meet before leaving or the need for the state to petition if it wants to withdraw its membership. In this case, the southern states adopted a secession as the only way to pursue a life away from the control of the US federal government. Their action did not call for any legal liabilities as the constitution could not point out any misdeed in the action. However, the North was not ready to let go part of the US country. It treated the southern states as rebels and were ready to fight. The North dreaded a schism that would split the United States of America into two independent nations. To some extent, the Civil War was the Northerners’ way of denouncing the law for the greater good of the nation.
Firstly, the issues of States Rights and tariffs raised a lot of opposing views between the two regions. The greatest cause of the divide, however, was the controversies that arose on the issue of slavery. The South had a slavery institution while the Northern states had banned the practice altogether. The southern region feared that sooner or later, the law might expand into their territories, decimating their economic productivity. In support of secession, Preston stressed that it was impossible for the South to exist without slavery ((John S. Preston (John Smith), 1809-1881. Address of Hon. John S. Preston, Commissioner from South Carolina, to the Convention of Virginia, February 19, 1861.). The southern slave owners could not also migrate to areas where slavery was prohibited as their slaves would end up being