Federalist questions?
(Part 14)
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states of the original 13 approved the draft constitution of the original 13, of the United States of America in 1787. The Federal Government began operations in March 4, 1789. The union increased with 11 new states, thereafter Ohio in 1805, Louisiana in 1812, Maine in 1820, etc., to Texas and California in 1845 and 1850, respectively, Arizona in 1912, the 49th and 50th state, Alaska and Hawaii in the 1950s. New states may be admitted into the union by an act of the Federal Congress. No new states may be formed within the jurisdiction of any state, nor may any state be formed in conjunction of 2 states or parts of a states without the consent of the state legislatures concerned.
The American Civil War (1861-65), described by historians as one of the “most horrific” with 640,000 to 750,000 casualties with undetermined civilian deaths, was an amalgamation of issues. At the core was a conflict of socio-cultural values, political ideals, and economic well-being, manifested in the prime propellants of an increasing territory, shifting power towards Western frontiers, Southern agriculture vs. Northern industrial economy, slavery (legal even after 1776 in 13 founding states to persons of African ancestry), Abraham Lincoln’s election on “emancipation” for the “Negros.”
The most fundamental question was the role of government. Sovereign states freely joining a union pushing for more state rights versus greater federal control? Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America -- 11 states -- seceded on Dec. 20, 1860, from the union, saying, “The bill of rights of states subsequent admission into the union 1789, undeniably recognizes in the people the power to resume the authority delegated for purposes of government… Secession… is justified upon the basis states are sovereign…acknowledge our right to self-government.” Lincoln’s decision to fight than let the states secede, as he saw it, was a sacred duty to preserve the union, at all cost. The substantive power of state sovereignty thus became a closed issue, settled by union victory in the civil war.