preserves the Union. They also tried to figure out why the South people showed their enthusiasm in this war.
According to Jefferson Davis’s speech given to the Confederate army in October 1863, he claimed that the South was “forced to take up arms” to defend its “freedom” and “State sovereignty” against the threat of “slavish submission to despotic usurpation” from the North. This speech is the explanation of the South’s participation in the war. However, it is only an apologia for maintaining the slavery. I completely support the North in the Civil War, not because it is the winner, but because it has more reasonable reasons to take up arms.
Firstly, the North was fighting for the slaves. It is no doubt to say that the slavery which is the most evil system used to exist in the world. It started form the ancient time when it is known as a part of ancient civilization2. Slavery at that time is described as the punishment for crime, the enslavement of prisoners of war, child abandonment, and the birth of slave children to slaves. They are just initial ideas about slavery of the ancient time. Later, with the civilization, slavery spans nearly every culture, nationality and religion. Slaves were used as a tool for developing agriculture purpose. When many countries in the world,
especially France and England abolished the slavery, the South of America wanted to keep it. The way the South people treated slaves is not the way people treat people. In the South’s eyes, slaves are just their property and have no rights at all under American constitution and laws. Being different from a human, the property can be used or damaged optionally by the owner. That is the reason why the owners could make a decision for them, living and working extremely hard for their private purpose or suffering painful punishment and dying. Only at the first glance, we, the human, cannot accept this system and support it. Ironically, the South considered it as their freedom and tried to protect it. Although there was no law at that time that legitimate the rights of slaves, the South people could not continuously advocate that the slavery is one of their freedoms. About freedom, it which is doing whatever people like is limited by moral perception and laws. In this case, we do know the slavery is wrong whenever it is abolished in law or not. Particularly, the human cannot have a freedom which contains the racism. The North was fighting to abolish this evil. It just followed the civilized nations at that time. Furthermore, at the beginning of the war, the North did not force the South to end their slavery and mention about the abolishment. It only tried to prevent the South from seceding. Even the Emancipation Proclamation only gave freedom to blacks who joined the Union army. Therefore, the South, especially the president of it, Jefferson Davis could not say that the South people were forced to take up arms to protect their freedom.
Secondly, the Civil War is to preserve the Union. Through history, we know about the formation of states in America. It is a whole long process. First, initial colonies were controlled by European countries. During the Seven Years’ War, there was the need of organized action against an outside threat posed by the French and Native-Americans in the mid eighteenth century. After that, the American Revolution happened, again, states needed to be united to fight against British. Benjamin Franklin, who one of the Founding Fathers of the United States recycled the well-known political cartoon “Join, or Die” to encourage the formation of the Union3. From this timeline, we understand that the founders of America recognized the importance of the Union very early. Being the United States, Americans can have strong government in order to deal with many problems and crisis. The South want to secede from the Union, it threatened directly the sovereign Union. Allowing the secession of many states is equal to destroying it and against the founder’s will. Other states may follow the secession, they can secede anytime they have the conflicts with the Union. Preserving the United States at that time is the compulsory action. The state sovereignty is not as important as a national sovereignty.
Last but not least, the North gave American opportunities to develop its economy after the Civil War. The South followed the slavery system to benefit its agriculture economy. Intuitively, a business that uses slaves should be profitable. The slave’s owners pay the workers nothing, and reap the benefits of their labors. Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman’s book, “Time on the Cross”, suggested that slavery in the American South was a lucrative enterprise for plantation owners. In contrast, the North wanted to develop their manufacturing. We all know that the manufacturing plays an important role for the development of an economy. Agriculture which used slavery may, in the long run, have been at a disadvantage. Some analyses suggest that the economic contradictions of slavery led to its inevitable demise. Paying for workers is the better way to have a stable economy. The North’s participation in the Civil War not only saved many slaves but also benefited the American economy early because after banning slavery, the South must follow the economic model of the North.
In conclusion, Jefferson Davis’s speech is just one to advocate the South’s faults. The North had to take arm in order to end the slavery, preserve the Union and develop American economy. The victory of the North is not easy, but they can win because they follow reasonable ideas to be evolved in the Civil War.