Ambiguous_Words

Ambiguous Words Essay Question: “Southerners maintained that secession was the ultimate expression of democracy, while Lincoln claimed it was rejection of democracy. How did they explain and justify their principles.” On December 20, 1860, the Confederacy was born when South Carolina seceded from the federal Union. The Union and the Confederacy severely clashed in their views on the Constitution; the South felt that individual states should have the right to nullify laws, while Abraham Lincoln believed the federal government should appoint representatives for individual states. The South and Abraham Lincoln contrasted sharply on the idea of secession because the Constitution was ambiguous regarding states’s rights. Immediately following the election of Lincoln, the southern secessionists wanted to separate from the Union. Southerners feared that the Republican victory in 1860 would “interfere in their domestic concerns–particularly their right to property and slaves as guaranteed by the fifth amendment of the Bill of Rights” (Jones 24). As a result, the state of South Carolina held a convention and voted to secede from the Union. Following South Carolina’s lead, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas also seceded. “Their growing minority status had left them vulnerable to northern oppression; their right to withdraw from the governing pact remained a fundamental precept of the Declaration south, lincoln, union, states, independence, declaration, southerners, right, constitution, southern, slave, secessionists, secede, rights, northern, men, felt, create, confederacy, should, property, jones, government, founding, federal, created, because, 24, worried, while, way, upper, thus, their, sovereignty, secession, result, old, nullify, notion, north, new, lead, interfere, individual, independent, idea, growing, free, feared, equal