These are important points that often get lost in the focus on slavery. There are generally multiple factors that lead to escalation and eventually war, and the Civil War was no exception.
It’s also important to distinguish between what led to secession and what specifically led to people killing each other in war. To me it seems that what ultimately tipped the scales was tariffs. The South paid most of the import fees, but most of the money was going to public projects in the North. After the states in the Deep South declared their secession, many Northern newspapers generally accepted secession as within the rights of the seceding states. They only started beating the war drums in early 1861 when the Confederacy announced their new low tariffs, and Northern interests realized they would no longer benefit.
Yeah, a lot of this stuff was all intertwined. Tariffs played a key role. The South overplayed their hand by firing on federal property. That was a grave mistake. They might have won a legal case regarding the secession question in 1861.
These are important points that often get lost in the focus on slavery. There are generally multiple factors that lead to escalation and eventually war, and the Civil War was no exception.
It’s also important to distinguish between what led to secession and what specifically led to people killing each other in war. To me it seems that what ultimately tipped the scales was tariffs. The South paid most of the import fees, but most of the money was going to public projects in the North. After the states in the Deep South declared their secession, many Northern newspapers generally accepted secession as within the rights of the seceding states. They only started beating the war drums in early 1861 when the Confederacy announced their new low tariffs, and Northern interests realized they would no longer benefit.
Yeah, a lot of this stuff was all intertwined. Tariffs played a key role. The South overplayed their hand by firing on federal property. That was a grave mistake. They might have won a legal case regarding the secession question in 1861.