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 …

…Constitution and the Declaration of Independence lacked an explicit clause concerning blacks as “men” and states’s rights. Lincoln believed that “the longevity of the Union proved its legitimacy against anyone seeking its dissolution” (Jones 25). However, the Confederacy felt that the federal government wanted to encroach upon their natural rights as American citizens. Even though Lincoln and the Confederacy had disagreements and contrasting interpretations of the Founding Father’s documents, war generally solved their contentions.