When in the Course of Human Events: Arguing the Case for Southern Secession - Hardcover

Adams, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0847697223 ISBN 13: 9780847697229

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999

Synopsis

Bold and thought provoking.

About this title

Reviews

In case anyone doubted Garry Wills' argument in A Necessary Evil that the peculiar myths and distortions surrounding the nature, formation, and meaning of the U.S. regularly stir movements committed to myth rather than reality, Adams, a historian of taxation, delivers a polemic that proves it. The Civil War, Adams argues, was not about slavery or the Union; it was about tariffs! The Southern states had a right to secede. Slavery would have ended at some point, but Lincoln did not particularly threaten it. It was, Adams maintains, the "dueling tariffs" of the Union and the Confederacy that caused the war. Within his states' rights argument, Adams maintains secession's legality should have been determined by the courts, and slaveholders should have been compensated for the property they lost through emancipation. Adams relies heavily on the European press; he asserts, but does not prove, that U.S. abolitionists were a fanatical lunatic fringe. The author clearly anticipates controversy; it should not be long in coming. Mary Carroll

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0847697223
• ISBN 13: 9780847697229
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 280