Answer:
04/12/2011
On this date, a century and a half ago, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, on an island off the coast of South Carolina. The Confederate States of America asserted not only their right to secede but also to claim federal property within their borders. The newly inaugurated U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln, rejected both claims and refused to evacuate Sumter.
“Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy,” Lincoln had said in his somber inaugural address a month earlier. “A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or despotism. Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.”
The Civil War, to Lincoln, was never technically a “war” but an illegal and unconstitutional rebellion and a fight to put down the rebellion. The details of the events leading to the firing on Fort Sumter have much to do with this attitude and with his total rejection of the possibility of secession.
By attempting to resupply Sumter, Lincoln succeeded in forcing the Confederacy to fire the first shots. Lincoln had to accept the loss of Sumter soon after. But he was successful, so to speak, in forcing the other side to start the shooting. Lincoln believed that justified the military actions that he subsequently ordered to put down the rebellion.
<span>The arrival of Perry was both a blessing and a curse. Japan had been isolationist for a lengthy period of time and marooned sailors who washed up on the shores of Japan were often mistreated and seen as 'invaders'. Russia and the United States were in a competition for trade in the Pacific and Perry's arrival meant that the United States was seeking better treatment of marooned mariners and use of port facilities. This caused Japan to become more engaged and engaging in international commerce, gave the United States a foothold in a new trade relationship and caused Japan to find the need to modernize, economically, politically and culturally.</span>
changes in the composition of the Supreme Court.
This was largely due to efforts of President Reagan whose appointments of Justices to the Supreme Court made the Court largely conservative. This includes elevating William Rehnquist, to the position of Chief Justice in 1986 when Warren Burger retired
The rise of the Republican party occurred when the Democratic party failed to support the spread of slavery into Kansas. When Douglas won the party nomination, the Democrats split into two factions north and south
