What is states rights

Civil War Article. States' Rights. The Rallying Cry of Secession. South Carolinians crowd into the streets of Charleston in to hear speeches promoting secession. Related Articles. View All Related Resources. Slavery in the United States. Trigger Events of the Civil War. The Gathering Storm. The United States Constitution, which the country has operated under since , strengthened the central government in many ways, including taxation, the ability to call up state militias for national service, etc.

It also established certain individual rights throughout the nation, including freedoms of speech, assembly, religion, etc. Disputes arose at times.

During the War of New England states met to discuss seceding from the Union because the war was interfering with their trade with Britain. In national tariffs that benefited Northern manufacturers while hurting the economy of Southern states led to the Nullification Crisis, in which South Carolina declared the tariffs null and void.

The state threatened to leave the Union, but a compromise was reached that temporarily defused the crisis. The Southern economy, meanwhile, had become increasingly tied to slavery and its expansion. Slavery was always most important, a fact illustrated by the debate over popular sovereignty.

The right of people in a state or territory to determine for themselves whether to allow slavery was most famously championed by U. Douglas of Illinois as part of the Kansas-Nebraska Act They were unwilling to risk the possibility that popular sovereignty would limit the spread of slavery, preferring instead to rely on the power of the federal government. Everything changed in , however.

In the North, the antislavery Republican Party had stepped confidently into the void left by the Whig Party, and when its candidate, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, was elected U. Eleven slave states, citing the works of Jefferson, Madison, and Calhoun, seceded from the Union in the winter and spring of — and formed the Confederate States of America.

McCue , Confederates tried to convince Southerners of all classes that they were a unique people who possessed a purity, honor, and chivalry that could not be found above the Mason-Dixon Line. Confederate propagandists turned any perceived attack on the rights of states into an attack on a whole people and their way of life. We are defending our firesides and homes. Slavery, although largely understood to be a cause of the war, was not a compelling rallying cry because it divided whites along class lines.

It was, however, useful as a metaphor for the plight of Southerners, who were imagined to be the helpless victims of a federal government now under the control of antislavery Republicans. He persuaded the Confederate Congress to pass legislation allowing for the conscription of men into the army, the confiscation of private property otherwise known as impressment , the declaration of martial law, and the restriction of habeas corpus rights.

The Lincoln administration also pushed hard against the traditional boundaries of federal authority, but it was more difficult for Davis. Joseph E. Brown of Georgia was one of several governors who vigorously objected to conscription. Instead of honoring the national draft—the first in American history—he declared one of his own for the state militia.

And many Confederate citizens turned against the government , whose power they came to resent. Angry mobs freed draft evaders from jails, and committees were formed to protest impressment.

Perhaps the more important point, though, is that Davis was able to consolidate so much power in his government so easily. The United States that emerged following the Confederate surrender at Appomattox was one that firmly rejected the notion of a voluntary compact between the states, and its federal government was considerably stronger as a result.

Still, the myth of the Lost Cause —an interpretation of the Civil War dating back to the postwar writings of Confederate veterans such as Jubal A. Encyclopedia Virginia Grady Ave. Virginia Humanities acknowledges the Monacan Nation , the original people of the land and waters of our home in Charlottesville, Virginia.

We invite you to learn more about Indians in Virginia in our Encyclopedia Virginia. Words nearby states' rights statesman , statesmanship , state socialism , States of the Church , states' righter , states' rights , States' Rights Democratic Party , Statesville , stateswoman , state tree , state trooper. How to use states' rights in a sentence The most notorious states are Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where death is an acceptable legal remedy.

The Salvaging Of Civilisation H. Herbert George Wells. Glances at Europe Horace Greeley. Ramona Helen Hunt Jackson.