| − | [[File:Civil War state map 1864.png|right|300px|thumb|U.S. in 1864: Red states are the Confederacy, light blue are border states which refused to join the Confederacy, and dark blue states comprise the Union, as of 1864]] | + | [[File:Civil War state map 1864.png|right|300px|thumb|U.S. in 1864: Red states are the Confederacy, light blue are border states which refused to join the Confederacy, and dark blue is the Union]] |
| | The view in the North was that the southern states had no right to secede, and thus their declarations of secession were null and void. The South was still part of the United States, according to the North, and the fighting by the South (as at Fort Sumter) constituted an insurrection or a "civil war."<ref>In ''Texas v. White'', 74 U.S. 700 (1869), the U.S. Supreme Court held by a 5-3 margin that secession was not allowed by the U.S. Constitution, and that the southern ordinances of secession were "absolutely null." This opinion has been criticized, however, because it was written by Chief Justice Salmon Chase, who was a former member of President Lincoln's Cabinet during the Civil War, and hence had already been against secession.</ref> In the South, its view was that Lincoln was the aggressor in trying to fortify a northern position in South Carolina (Fort Sumter), and the resulting conflict was the "War of Northern Aggression" or "War Among the States." For a long time one could tell whether a stranger was from the northern part of the United States, or the southern part, simply by the name the person used to talk about the conflict. It is said that the winner of a war gets to name it, so "Civil War" is what we will use. | | The view in the North was that the southern states had no right to secede, and thus their declarations of secession were null and void. The South was still part of the United States, according to the North, and the fighting by the South (as at Fort Sumter) constituted an insurrection or a "civil war."<ref>In ''Texas v. White'', 74 U.S. 700 (1869), the U.S. Supreme Court held by a 5-3 margin that secession was not allowed by the U.S. Constitution, and that the southern ordinances of secession were "absolutely null." This opinion has been criticized, however, because it was written by Chief Justice Salmon Chase, who was a former member of President Lincoln's Cabinet during the Civil War, and hence had already been against secession.</ref> In the South, its view was that Lincoln was the aggressor in trying to fortify a northern position in South Carolina (Fort Sumter), and the resulting conflict was the "War of Northern Aggression" or "War Among the States." For a long time one could tell whether a stranger was from the northern part of the United States, or the southern part, simply by the name the person used to talk about the conflict. It is said that the winner of a war gets to name it, so "Civil War" is what we will use. |