At the convention, the southerners.
declared that "they are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states" (Stampp.
5). Southern whites felt that they were acting in the tradition of the Revolution of 1776;.
therefore, they had a right to national independence and to nullify a constitutional.
compact that did not protect them from northern cruelty. "Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.
argued that the old compact "had been repeatedly broken by every state in the Union;.
and . . . when the parties to a treaty violate it, it is no longer binding" (7). Continuing.
with this notion, the southern states justified their succession with the idea that the.
federal government was interpreting the Founding Fathers's documents incorrectly,.
thus, infringing on their natural rights to life, liberty and property. Additionally, the.
seceded states claimed that they had a legal right to secede from the Union because.
they voluntarily joined the Union, and the Constitution had no clause prohibiting.
withdrawal from the Union. The Confederacy's last defense was "that the states are.
older than the Union. . . they created the Union but without yielding any party of their.
sovereignty," (5). Therefore, if the Union tried in anyway to relieve the South of their.
sovereignty, they would secede under their Constitutional rights. The South believed.
that when the Declaration of Independence stated "all men are created equal," the.
document was only referring to white men owning property. As a result, their.
interpretation of the Declaration of Independence was the opposite of Lincoln's, causing.
animosity between the two groups.
Contrarily, Lincoln saw no reason why the South would secede from the Union.
He felt that there was no economic advantage to joining an independent slave South.
"[The Confederacy] rejected secessionists arguments that an identity of economic.
interest linked all slaveholding sates" (Crofts 106). Lincoln, along with many Unionists,.
