8/14/2019 Causes of the Civil War: The Argument Over States Rights

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8/14/2019 Causes of the Civil War: The Argument Over States Rights

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territorial integrity against domestic foes. It presented the question whetherdiscontented individuals can always break up their government, and thus put an endto free government upon the earth..." (430)

Each side had a point. The differences over states' rights and other issues (suchas the spread of slavery) were irreconcilable. The matter was settled only by fouryears of war and bloodshed. In the end, the Civil War settled those differences.The war gave us a Federal Government that would forever be preeminent over

individual states. We would have a national bank, a common currency, an income taxand a national government that would account for 30 per cent of our gross nationalproduct. Slavery, too, would be abolished, but even the Federal Government wouldnot be able to stamp out prejudice and discrimination.