William C. Davis: State

William C. Davis is American historian. Explore interesting quotes on state.
William C. Davis: 34   quotes 0   likes

“To the old Union they had said that the Federal power had no authority to interfere with slavery issues in a state. To their new nation they would declare that the state had no power to interfere with a federal protection of slavery. Of all the many testimonials to the fact that slavery, and not states rights, really lay at the heart of their movement, this was the most eloquent of all.”

William C. Davis

Source: Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America (2002), pp. 97–98

Heart

“So long as the number of slave states was the same as or greater than the number of free states, then in the Senate the South had a check on the government.”

William C. Davis

Source: Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America (2002), p. 9

“In fact, the state rights defense of secession in 1860–1861 did not really appear in force until after 1865 as builders of the Lost Cause myth sought to distance themselves from slavery.”

William C. Davis

Source: The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy (1996), p. 180

Appearance

“Race had never been a defining element in successful nation states. The true definition always depended far more on distinctions in language, culture, and political institutions. Southerners spoke precisely the same language as Northerners, so there was no distinction there.”

William C. Davis

Source: Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America (2002), p. 20

Success , Dependency

“Southern states had embraced the Union only insofar as it served to protect their rights to hold property in slaves, and to spread slavery as the nation expanded and the institution itself became intertwined as a defining element in the struggle for national power itself. In slavery could not spread as new states were formed, then the existing slave states would be doomed to perpetual minority in representation in Congress, guaranteeing that if the day came when Northern antipathy to slavery itself became hot enough, the majority could use the government to subvert the Constitution and abolish the institution where it already existed. In short, the South could not affort to lose any battle over slavery, nor even over issues on its periphery.”

William C. Davis

Source: Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America (2002), p. 3