The #1 cause of the Civil War...

[DemocraticPatriot]

The #1 cause of the civil war, was the insurrectionists attacking Fort Sumter…

That was a choice they made, because many southern leaders feared that parts of the Confederacy would ‘reconstruct’ with the Union, unless they made it into a war…

Prior to that, in the five months between Lincoln’s election and their attack on the fort, the North made no hostile actions against them-— didn’t even raise additional troops. They only continued to occupy the forts that they still occupied in the south, which were federal property.

Just prior to the attack, one southern politician urged them to make war, with the words

(paraphrased)— ‘If you don’t sprinkle blood in the faces of the people of (my state),

they will be back in the Union in ten days!’

It was the South who started the actual war…

If they hadn’t made that fatal mistake, there is no telling what might have happened— they might actually still have their own country today!

The catchphrase they invented after losing the war,

“The War of Northern Aggression” was a total LIE-—

it was them who started the shooting and the war.

They FAFO-— “fucked around and found out”!



(Yes, slavery was the issue that started the whole argument, or more to the point, the southern demands that southern slaveholders be allowed to take their slaves into the territories--- and additional southern demands that the congress enact a "slave code" that would PROTECT slavery in the territories.... When Lincoln was elected on a platform of refusing to allow slavery in the territories, the 'confederate states' then presumed to leave the Union..... However, the North did not choose to make war upon them for doing so--- UNTIL they started the shooting themselves!)


There is nothing quite like attacking the troops of another country, to "cause" a war!

[SoFlaBro]

1. Slavery was the main charge. Fort Sumter was the fucking flint.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. There are root causes and triggers. You've identified a trigger. . . . . nt

[malaise]

3. THIS n/t

[DemocraticPatriot]

5. I don't deny that slavery was the "root cause" of the civil war---

but my post said "#1 cause" and not "#1 root cause"...

The South chose to make war upon the North, and started the shooting. Before that, the North was divided about what to do...
and as I noted in the OP, had not even begun to raise additional troops...

The attack on Sumter united the Northern states the same way that Pearl Harbor united the American people for war against Japan. Once they started shooting at us, questions about 'root causes' were irrelevant...

Slavery was indeed the "root cause" of the war, but the North did not choose to make war upon the South over that issue, or even over the affected secession of the states of the deeper south...

The North only made war upon the South after the South had started the war... It was self-defense, in effect.


Of course slavery was the "root cause" of secession and the war---
but the original Confederate states had declared themselves to be out from under the jurisdiction of the national union---
slavery was presumably 'safe' there, at that point, in the absence of a Northern attempt to use force against those states. which they had not done, or even made any preparations to do...

My point is, that it was the South who started the war. They chose to employ violence against Northern troops over a question of 'property'--
(Fort Sumter)--- the same as they employed violence against others whom they claimed as 'property'.


As for Nikki Haley--- it would have been a very brave thing for her to have acknowledged that her own state started the war---
but that would have been a deep betrayal of the whole 'War of Northern Aggression' propaganda which dates back to the latter 1800s....

'War of Northern Aggression'? Who was it who started the shooting, again???

Again, I acknowledge that slavery was indeed the 'root cause' of the war---
but who actually started the war is not without great relevance, IMHO.

[TheFarseer]

4. They attacked Ft Sumter, THEN

In an unbelievably stupid move, they violated the neutrality of Kentucky. Had they not done that, the Union would not even had the ability to attack them in the west, where the South mostly lost the war. Or if the North gets impatient and violates their neutrality, Kentucky joins the South with much needed manpower and the formidable barrier of the Ohio River.

Oh and slavery was the overriding issue over which the war was fought. State’s rights? Yes, states rights to have citizens own slaves.

[DemocraticPatriot]

6. Yes, the Confederate invasion of Kentucky was a great strategic mistake,

of which General Grant was quick to take advantage.