What would have been the Founding Fathers' reaction to the Secession of the Southern states in 1861 considering the political climate at the time?

Answer 1

The concept of states rights in relation to Federalism, and the problems that ensued from its interpretation were very much a part of the political discourse the Founding Fathers engaged in while creating the system that would give rise to our country. Some of them, notably Jefferson and Madison, wanted to make sure that the new system would preserve the ability the states had to influence events that could affect them directly. They did not want to surrender the state's ability to handle what they considered to be its affairs to a strong federal government, (mainly in legal and fiscal matters). Others, such as Hamilton and Adams, wanted to have a very strong central government that would be able to consolidate the new nation's position, without really giving much thought to the effect this would have later on regarding the state-federal government dynamic. Over time this situation became much more complicated, as the relationship between government and society evolved. It was compounded by economic and social factors, namely the rapid industrialization of the North, opposed by the the continued predominance of an agriculture-driven economy in the South, which was thoroughly dependant on slave labor for its success. The Founding Fathers had definite and strong views regarding the slavery issue, but it's unclear if they even considered to what extent and how negatively this social phenomenon would influence the ongoing transformation of the process they started. Since the nation's inception, slavery was perhaps the most divisive issue in the struggle for states rights, in part because the growth of the country and the conditions under which new states would become a part of the union were settled largely upon the question of whether or not these new states would allow slavery on their soil. A flawed solution was reached through the adoption of imperfect agreements and compromises, (the Missouri-Nebraska Compromise), that would set the stage for the definitive break that would occur some years lates with the secession of S. Carolina and the other southern states in the spring of 1860. Ideally, had the Founding Fathers been alive at the time of the Secession, one would like to think that they would have used their immense prestige and influence to stop events from getting out of control, and to avert the Civil War that unfortunately followed. However, it is clear that since some of them had very strong feelings on the issue of states rights, they would have sided with the South, since they probably would have interpreted the break to be the ultimate consequence of the encroachment of the federal government's authority and influence over that of the individual states, and would have decided that this was something worth defending , even if that meant causing the dissolution of the Union. It is worth noting that, even though the Founding Fathers were united in their wish to shake their young country loose from the chains of British arbitrary rule, they did not have an absolute concept of how the system they wanted to adopt would work. Even 13 years after the Declaration of Independence, we governed ourselves with the Articles of Confederation, which were flawed and kept our country from being able to function effectively as a united nation. The reason for this was the distrust that Americans of the time felt towards big central governments, and this general feeling of distrust survives right unto our time. I think that the Founding Fathers would generally be astounded and amazed at the fact that the system they created and put into practice survives after 227 uninterrupted years. They would definitely not agree with everything we've done to it, but I feel they would be very pleased altogether.