A Chronology of Significant Events Leading to the 

War of 1861, with a Reevaluation of Its Causes, Its Perpetrators,

and the Relative Morality of the Two Countries Involved 

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On the cause of secession, invasion and war in 1861.

 

In the US in the years leading to southern secession, all major events related to slavery diminished that issue as a reason for division and war, all major events related to tariffs and the distribution of wealth loomed ever darker and more immense.

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In the North it was called The Civil War. In the South it was The War of Southern Independence or The War of Northern Aggression. In the end the North won, so now we have just one name, The Civil War. But a civil war necessarily involves a conflict between factions of a single country fighting for control of that country.  Therefore, when we refer to it as The Civil War, we are required to pretend that our Constitution prohibits secession (it does not), that the South had no right to secede (it did, see the 10th amendment), that therefore the South never actually seceded (it did), and that the South was never a separate country (it was, for four years, the Confederate States of America). Furthermore, we are asked to believe that the South was fighting for control of the United States (it was not, it had already seceded and had no interest in the United States). Like the colonies in 1775, the seceding states had declared their independence and wanted only to be left alone. And exactly like King George III in 1775, Abraham Lincoln decided to invade the new country to prevent the southern states from choosing to create their own government, to

force the southern states back into the United States, and--most importantly--to preserve the flow of southern wealth into the US treasury. 

 

The American Civil War was, despite the name, a war of independence. It was the same kind of war as the American Revolution which, also despite the name, was a war of independence, The name given to the earlier war suggests the change from a monarchy to a democracy. The United States has never been much of a democracy, but the name was chosen to emphasize the war's importance and to suggest the new government was the opposite of monarchy. Similarly, referring to the 1861 war of independence as a Civil War implies that the South was always a part of the United States and that it was simply in rebellion, like a rebellious child. That none of that is true is beside the point. The purpose of the name is to obfuscate the fact that it was a war about the independence of a new country that had a right, as all people do, as the colonists did, to choose their own government.  The name was also chosen to blame the South for starting a war it had every reason to not want, just as the colonies had no desire for war.  And just as war did not have to happen in 1775 (it was a decision by King George), the war in 1861 could also have been avoided (it was a decision by the new President Lincoln). 

 

Lincoln spent two days deciding. His problem was that the Confederacy did not want war.  Congress had not voted to start a war (it was not even in session). Lincoln had no legitimate reason to start the war he wanted.  And he could not constitutionally start a war without a declaration from Congress. So he decided illegally to reinforce a Fort that was no longer property of the US, knowing that South Carolina would resist the reinforcement. When Confederate guns fired on US ships, Lincoln could tell the story that the Confederacy started a war of rebellion against the US, the completely fictitious story of civil war that Americans now believe to be true. 

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And so, the naming of a war can be used to change the understanding of what it was.  In the same way and for the same reason, the victor can be counted on to rewrite to his advantage a war's history--adding, deleting, and reframing the facts. In the case of The Civil War, Americans are often and typically told that the issue of slavery caused eleven southern states to secede in the months leading to war. To insist that the War of 1861 was a conflict over slavery benefits the United States by creating the impression that the remaining states of the US (the North) fought on the side of justice, i.e. that the South seceded to preserve slavery and the North went to war to end slavery. An examination of events preceding the War suggests these ideas are very far from true. 

 

By 1861 most of the northern states had passed laws initiating the end of slavery, but all three branches of the federal government, in order to preclude any movement toward secession in the South, had carefully protected the right of the states to permit the holding of slaves. Governments throughout the world were abolishing slavery, but the US Constitution permitted slavery and the US government had taken no steps toward its abolition and major steps for its protection.  According to the census of 1860, there were 451,000 slaves in the states that would become the North, including 87,000 slaves in Maryland (the state from which Washington DC was taken) and 3,000 slaves in Washington DC itself. Lincoln, the newly elected President, believed the federal government had no Constitutional right to interfere with slavery in the states.  No such power is given to the federal government by the Constitution, and the 10th Amendment, which consists of just one sentence, says "rights not expressly given to the federal government shall be reserved to the states and the people".  In his inaugural speech, Lincoln stated that he had no intention of interfering with the institution of slavery. He also declared his support for the proposed 13th amendment, the Corwin Amendment (already approved by both the House and the Senate, signed by President Buchanon and sent to the states for ratification), which would have forever prohibited federal interference with slavery in the states. The complete text of the Corwin Amendment was this sentence:  "No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State."  In the three months following passage and signing of the amendment, in spite of its promise to permit slavery forever (if the states wanted it forever), four southern states left the Union.

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So, if promising not to abolish slavery or even to interfere with slavery could not solve the secession problem, why were states seceding? The issues that concerned and angered southern leaders in 1861 were economic. The economies of northern states were built on fledgling industries that manufactured goods for domestic consumption but sent little to be sold abroad. Most American products were inferior to those made by Europe's more established industries and were not competitive in markets abroad. The South, by contrast, produced raw materials—cotton, sugar, tobacco—that were in great demand particularly in Europe.  As a result, the bulk of US international trade prior to 1861 was to and from the southern states. In the years before the war approximately 80% of federal revenue came from tariffs on southern imports.

 

Before 1913 there was no income tax. Most income to the federal government was collected through tariffs on imports. The North, with approximately twice the population of the South and more states, controlled both the House and the Senate and the Presidency and was able to legislate huge import tariffs. Because the tariffs affected the South much more than the North, the North benefited greatly if the tariffs were as high as possible. In 1828, the tariff on most products was set at 62% of the value of the imports.  In 1832 South Carolina declared the tariffs null and void and threatened to secede.  In 1833 South Carolina agreed to remain in the Union after Congress passed a bill to gradually reduce tariffs to 20%. Twenty-nine years later, despite the protests of southern Congressmen and Senators, President Buchanon signed into law The Morrill Tariff of 1861 (signed two days before his administration ended, two days before Lincoln's began).  It increased tariffs by 70%.  That South Carolina and the other southern states would be furious was understood, but the northern states wanted more money for its projects, especially the Transcontinental Railroad which was entirely in the North and benefited only the northern states. Approximately 75% of federal funds in 1860 were spent on northern projects.  So, the South contributed 80% of the federal income and received 25% of federal expenditures. The United States was in the business of developing northern interests with the wealth of the southern states. Enactment of extremely high federal tariffs produced a precarious system of sectional thievery which was both hugely attractive to the North and intolerable to the South. 

 

Passage of the Morrill Tariff was the twelfth of seventeen planks in the platform of the Republican Party in the election of 1860.  And with the victory of an ardent pro-tariff President from Illinois, southern leaders could only imagine (correctly) that after the Morrill Tariff of 1861 would come ever higher tariffs and new rivers of southern dollars flowing north. In fact, two additional Morrill tariffs, each imposing higher tariffs than the one before, were enacted during the Lincoln administration. In the nine months between passage of the Morrill Tariff of 1861 by the House and its passage by the Senate, the first seven southern states seceded. The other four were gone within four months of its signing.

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It is sometimes said that all wars are about money, about the economic advantage that will accrue to the ruling class of the victorious country. It could also be said that governments bent on war will advance any reason for conflict except money. Why? Because the ruling class wants always to appear virtuous. It wants not to be seen as trading lives for money.  And, importantly, because a war nakedly proposed to increase the wealth of the already wealthy is unlikely to generate enthusiastic support among those who will be fighting, those who will be paying, those whose lives will likely be impoverished, and those whose existence will be threatened.

 

The War of 1861 fits that pattern. Both the Corwin Amendment (which protected slavery but failed to prevent secession) and the Morrill Tariff (which dramatically increased tariffs and exactly coincided with secession) are consistent with the proposition that control of the money produced by slavery, not slavery itself, precipitated the secession of the southern states. That Amendment (the Corwin) and that Tariff (the Morrill) also explain why Lincoln invaded the Confederacy.  The newly elected President said in his first inaugural speech that he believed he had no Constitutional right to interfere with slavery and that he had no intention of doing so. But Lincoln did intend, at any cost, to preserve and to increase the huge flow of money from the South into the US treasury. He was, after all, a corporate lawyer. He had big plans. Projects in the North with money from the South. And he was willing to trade 600,000 lives for a 400% increase in US income. In addition to the lives lost, Abraham Lincoln's War of 1861 destroyed the independence of the South and and much of its infrastructure, it destroyed the idea underlying the Constitution that states are sovereign and can choose their government, it destroyed the pretense of a voluntarily united United States, and it added another chapter to a country that cares a lot about money but not so much (if anything) about democracy or people.

 

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The Timeline.  Following is a history of key events leading to the war. The purpose of the timeline is to show in some detail that the reason for the so-called American Civil War followed the general rule that war is about money. And to show that this war was not about the freeing of slaves.  

 

The following chronology is color coded by category as follows: 

tariffs (green)

slavery (orange)

secession (blue)

war (black)

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1828 

May. Congress passes the Tariff of Abominations, a tariff of 62% on 92% of imports, the highest peacetime tariff in history. Enactment of the tariff protects industries in the North from foreign competition and forces the South to pay much more for goods and to receive much less income from the sale of its exports. It is very popular in the North, very unpopular in the South.

 

1832 

July. Tariff Act of 1832 reduces tariffs, but South Carolina, still dissatisfied, threatens secession.

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November. A South Carolina state convention adopts the Ordinance of Nullification which declares the Tariffs of 1828 and 1832 unconstitutional, unenforcible in South Carolina, and null and void. The state initiates military preparations in anticipation of Federal intervention.

                                               

1833 

March. Congress passes the Force Bill, authorizing the use of the military to enforce tariffs in South Carolina.  It also passes the Compromise Tariff of 1833 which proposes to reduce tariffs gradually to 1816 levels (about  20%).  The new tariff is accepted by South Carolina.

 

1836

May. Pinckney Resolutions passed by Congress declare that Congress has no right to interfere with slavery and that no resolutions regarding slavery will be considered.

 

1850 

September. Congress strengthens the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 to allow slaveowners to retrieve slaves from northern states and from free territories.

 

1854 

May. Kansas-Nebraska Act opens northern territories to slavery.

 

1857 

March. Dred Scott v. Sandford. Supreme Court rules (7-2) that slaves are property, not citizens, and escaped slaves must be returned to their owners regardless of their location in the US. (The underground railroad--the escape route for slaves--doesn’t end in the northern states, but goes through the northern states to Canada.)

 

1860  

January. The new (1860) census shows that in the states and territories that would soon comprise the Union, there are 451,021 slaves (enslaved slaves, not freed slaves).  In Maryland alone there are 87,000 (enslaved) slaves and in Washington DC (population 75,000) there are 3,000 (enslaved) slaves.  31% of families in the South own slaves, 8% of families in the Union own slaves.

 

May. The Morill Tariff, which would increase the effective rate on imports by 70%, passes in the House, the vote among northern representatives is 96-15, among representatives from southern states the vote is 1-39.  Under threat of secession, the bill is tabled in the Senate until the second session of Congress (Dec-Mar).

 

November.  Lincoln is elected President. He receives 40% of the popular vote overall, but in the eleven states which would soon secede, Lincoln receives .1% of the popular vote. (In most of the southern states, the percentage of Lincoln's popular vote is recorded as .0%).

 

December. South Carolina secedes.

 

December. Major-General Anderson moves US troops and artillary from Ft. Moultrie into Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor, a position more easily defended and more easily resupplied by sea.

 

1861 

January.  Governor Pickens demands of President Buchanan the surrender of Ft. Sumter because the US troops there are “not consistent with the dignity or safety of the State of South Carolina”.  The Governor sends this message multiple times to both Presidents Buchanan and Lincoln.

 

January. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana secede.

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February. Senate passes the Morrill Tariff.

 

February. Texas secedes. 

 

February. The House passes the first proposal for a 13th amendment, the Corwin Amendment, which prohibits forever any constitutional change abolishing slavery in any of the states.  The specific words are:

"No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of such State.”

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February. The Confederacy is established. Initially it includes the seven states that had by that time seceded from the Union: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

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March. The Confederate Constitution is adopted in Montgomery, Alabama.

                                   

March. President Buchanan signs the Morrill Tariff into law two days before leaving office. 

 

March. The Senate passes the Corwin amendment. It is sent to the states for ratification.  The outgoing President Buchanan endorses the amendment and signs it, even though the President's signature is not required on amendments.

 

March. Lincoln, a strong supporter of the new tariff, becomes President. The Morrill Tariff had been an important part of Lincoln’s and the Republican Party’s campaign platform.

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March. Lincoln dislikes slavery but believes that the federal government has no right to interfere with slavery in the states. He says:

“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 right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” 

Lincoln promises to support the Corwin amendment (protecting slavery forever) in his inaugural speech and, in fact, as President-elect, has already worked for its passage in Congress.  He says: 

"I understand a proposed amendment to the Constitution—which amendment, however, I have not seen—has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service ... holding such a provision to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable."

                                   

April. Lincoln is told by the Governor of South Carolina that sending ships to reinforce troops in Charleston Harbor would be viewed by as an act of war. In one of his first acts as President, Lincoln initiates the war on the South by sending ships loaded with supplies into Charlston instead of withdrawing federal troops.  (Charleston is of great importance to the North because it is a major point of tariff collection.)

South Carolina militia fire on federal troops occupying, moving into and resupplying Ft. Sumter. Having seceded from the United States in December 1860, the governor of South Carolina correctly believes that Ft. Sumter is the property of South Carolina and that federal troops moving into Charleston Harbor from the United States are an invading army. This view is exactly the same as that of the colonists in 1776 who saw British troops as hostile invaders when they arrived on the American continent after the secession of the American colonies from the British Commonwealth.  

 

In both cases, the seceding legislatures retained the right to form their own government. That is the most fundamental idea of democracy. Jefferson says it like this in The Declaration of Independence:

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

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In a speech in 1848 on the Mexican War, Abraham Lincoln seems to agree with Jefferson,  He says:

"...Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better.  This is a most valuable--a most sacred right--a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world..."

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Horace Greeley, founder and editor of the New York Tribune, member of the House, and candidate for President (1872) writes in 1861:

"If the Cotton States shall become satisfied that they can do better out of the Union than in it, we insist on letting them go in peace. The right to secede may be a revolutionary one, but it exists nevertheless ... And whenever a considerable section of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go out, we shall resist all coercive measures designed to keep it in. We hope never to live in a republic where of one section is pinned to the residue by bayonets."

 

And later Horace Greeley writes:

"If the Declaration of Independence justified the secession of 3,000,000 colonists in 1776, why did it not justify the secession of 5,000,000 Southerns from the Union in 1861?"

                                                

April. Kentucky ratifies the Corwin Amendment.

 

April. Virginia secedes.

 

May.  Ohio and Rhode Island ratify the Corwin Amendment.  

 

May. Arkansas and North Carolina secede.

 

June. Tennessee secedes.

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1862

January.  Maryland ratifies the Corwin Amendment.

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June.  Illinois ratifies the Corwin Amendment.

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JL