Many believe that the the Civil War was centered around whether or not to allow slavery, but I believe that the main issue of states rights, and proper representation. I was disappointed in the Gettysburg museum in Gettysburg PA, the museum never addressed the fundamental issues and events that led to the civil war instead just saying that the northern states did not want slavery and the southern state wanted slavery. This analysis of the war is not accurate and being from South Carolina I found it somewhat offensive how the southern states and issues were portrayed in the museum.
The primary issue that started the civil war was whether or not to allow new states entering the union to be slave states. The southern states were in favor of allowing the entering state to decide whether or not it would allow slaves while the northern states did not want to allow any new states to own slaves. South Carolina believed that the federal government was exercising power that the constitution did not expressly provides and thus believed that slavery should be an issue decided by a state government. When the federal government continued to not admit states to union if they would hold slaves the southern states succeeded from the union and civil war began.
President Lincoln was an effective leader but clearly overstepped the fine line between federal government powers and those powers reserved for the states. It is interesting to see how different parts of the country interpret the war.
