Civil War
...ith abolitionist. The Southern states wanted their independence respected by the national government. The preservation of the way of life in the Southern states was of utmost importance. In opposition to legislation that would strengthen the national government the Confederacy rejected the demands of the Union. The Southern states believed that the right to succeed from the Union was within the doctrine of states' rights. Secessionist believed that the national government was a conglomeration of sovereign states and that any state had the legal right to remove itself from the Union. As Lincoln gave his inaugural speech he declared that secession was illegal and that he would acquire Southern possessions. One of these Southern holds would be Fort Sumter, which is located in the heart of the South. On April 12, the Confederacy fired upon Sumter to capture better position to defend initiated the battle that would culminate into the bloodiest War ever. The economic climates of the North and South differed a great deal. The North's economy depended heavily upon industry. The South was based on an agricultural economy, which produced such cash crops as tobacco, cotton, and sugar would suffer great hardships. Secession was key to the survival of the South and its way of life. Without secession the South would have to face an economy without its cheap resource, slave labor. Southerners felt that slavery should be the foundation of their society and it was more of a necessity than an evil. With expansion facing Congress, the issue of slavery played a key role in the division of the Union. Anti-slavery advocates demanded that slavery be left out of the new territories. Legislation was continuously introduced into Congress that would limit the span of slave labor, however the South responded by stating that could not be prohibited from any land that was in the Union. The slavery issue was a constant in legislation with Congress, various compromises attempted to settle the issue but with no solution. Popular-sovereignty was a compromised that would have allowed the territory itself to establish the laws on slavery, but proved damaging to the cause of the Anti-slavery activist because it allowed slavery in states that had previously determined it to be illegal. In order for the issue to be resolved and to keep the Southern states from seceding the Union a compromise needed to be r...