Virginia's John Randolph Explains What Really Led to the Secession of the Southern States and Ultimately to the Civil War (and it wasn't Slavery !) | Eastern NC Now

    In 1824, Rep. John Randolph from Virginia addressed Congress and condemned the high protective tariff that it was poised to pass, explaining how it would inflict great economic harm on the Southern states. He reminded his fellow congressmen that the Colonies had seceded from Great Britain for tax reasons which were minor compared to what the Northern-dominated Congress was doing to the South. He warned that the South could not stay in the union under such conditions and under such abuse. Congress went ahead and passed the tariff anyway.

    The tariff would increase two more times (Tariff of 1828 and then the Tariff of 1832, which led to the Nullification Crisis). While campaigning for president, Abraham Lincoln promised to raise the tariff to its highest rate ever. The money would be funneled to the industries and the bankers of the North. The South would be plundered to enrich the North. Lincoln, originally a Whig (and strong supporter of Henry Clay) believed in a strong federal government, high protective tariffs, business subsidies, federal funding of internal developments (for the North, to build industry), and a strong central bank. Lincoln may have changed parties but he never changed his ideology and his view of the role of government.

    When Lincoln was elected, six southern states seceded. When Lincoln refused to recognize their sovereign status, initiated hostilities at Fort Sumter, and then requisitioned troops to invade those states, 5 additional southern states seceded. They knew that the government was only interested in revenue and not preserving the Union. The government simply could not lose its revenue source and would not lose it. Lincoln used powerful, misleading, and most times, blatantly false language to convince the North and Congress that his position was the right one and then assumed unprecedented power to hijack the full resources of the federal government to wage his unconstitutional war and force the Southern states back into the Union.

    As I have said for years now: Lincoln waging war to save the Union is like a husband beating his wife to save the marriage.

    By the way, 4 slave states remained in the Union and slavery continued to be protected by the US Constitution and the government of the United States.

    The persistent narrative that the Civil War was fought over slavery is a merely concoction to deny generations of Americans the truth of why our country endured the bloodiest and most costly of all of its wars and to divert culpability away from our very government.