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Concept
Slavery and States' Rights
Summary
"Slavery and States' Rights" was a speech given by former Confederate States Army general Joseph Wheeler on July 31, 1894. The speech deals with the American Civil War and is considered to be a "Lost Cause" view of the war's causation. It is generally understood to argue that the United States (the Union) was to blame for the war, and downplays slavery as a cause.
The Richmond, Virginia Dispatch stated, "The House of Representatives being in Committee of the Whole, on appropriations and expenditures, and having under consideration the bill to remove the charge of desertion standing against Patrick Kelleher, late private, Company C, Thirty-eighth Illinois Volunteers, Mr. Wheeler, of Alabama, as a member of the Committee on Military Affairs, made a speech."
In his speech, Wheeler argued that the northern states, before the Civil War, had failed to comply with the terms of the United States Constitution. In particular, he argued that slaves were property and that Northern states had infringed on the constitutional property rights of the enslavers. He also argued that not only had the northern states encouraged secession but that, in the past, they had sought secession. Thus, secession was a right of the Confederacy. As an aside, Wheeler insinuated that the northern states were themselves to blame for slavery.
Wheeler explained (paraphrased), "I refute allegations that the responsibility of the war rested altogether upon the southern people. Many States of the North enacted laws making it a criminal offence for any official to comply with his oath of office." Wheeler argued that the failure of northern states to comply with the fugitive slave laws violated the Constitution. (See: nullification)
Wheeler quoted Daniel Webster in his speech, "How absurd it is to suppose that when different parties enter into a compact for certain purposes either can disregard any one provision, and expect, nevertheless, the other to observe the rest!"
He also noted from the Constitution, "No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.
Official source
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