“Democracy broke down, not when the Union ceased to be agreeable to all its constituent States, but when it was upheld, like any other Empire, by force of arms.” ~The London Times, 1865
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President with less than 40% of the popular vote.
Having run on a radical whig platform of high protective tarriffs, tax funded subsidies to favored corporate interests, and an aggressive funding of “internal improvements,” he sought to finally bring to fruition what Hamilton and Clay could not, a highly centralized Federal Government with diminished state sovereignty.
Holding that the Federal Government was in violation of the terms of the Constitution, South Carolina and several other states peacably and democratically convened their legislatures to decide on a withdrawal. The vote was for secession.
“The Union, in any event, won’t be dissolved. We don’t want to dissolve it, and if you attempt it, we won’t let you. With the purse and sword, the army and navy and treasury in our hands and at our command, you couldn’t do it. . . We do not want to dissolve the Union; you shall not.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
“I saw in State Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction, but as the redemption of Democracy, and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.” ~ Lord John Acton, British House of Commons, In a Letter to Robert E. Lee, 1866
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I will add that slavery ended peacefully all over the world. I do not believe that 600,000 young American men had to die for it to end here.