Presidential candidate Nikki Haley failed to cite slavery as a cause of the American Civil War on Wednesday night when a town hall attendee asked her what she thought led to the conflict. The former governor of South Carolina (the first state to secede from the Union in 1860 ) suggested that the Civil War was started over people disagreeing on “basically how the government was going to run” and “freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do.”

Halley then turned the question back to the audience and asked them why they thought the civil war happened. They said they were not running for president but also noted that it was strange she never mentioned slavery. She got a bit combative and asked what they wanted her to say about slavery.

@claudiaalicklove

Enjoy this educational poetry. This poem is part of my collection: Poetry of the State. It was created by taking state documents and deleting language, until only the poem remained. This poem was created using three secession documents from Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi. #nikkihaley#civilwar#poetry

♬ original sound – Claudia Alick

This poem by Claudia Alick is part of the collection: Poetry of the State. It was created by taking state documents and deleting language, until only the poem remained. This poem was created using three secession documents from Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi.

HERITAGE: Justify the Secession

Sources: Confederate States of America – Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union

A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union.

Confederate States of America – Georgia Secession

we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint
against our non-slave-holding confederate States
with reference to the subject of African slavery
They have endeavored to weaken our security
to disturb our domestic peace
and
tranquility

persistently
refused to comply with their express Constitutional obligations to us
in reference to that property
by the use of their power in the Federal Government
have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment
of the common Territories of the Republic
a distinct abolition party

Utter subjugation awaits us
if we should consent longer to remain in it
It is not a matter of choice
but of necessity
We must either submit to degradation
and to the loss of property
worth four billions of money
or we must secede from the Union
framed by our fathers
to secure this
as well as every other species of property
For far less cause than this
our fathers separated from the Crown of England

Our decision is made
We follow their footsteps
we resolve to maintain our rights
with the full consciousness of the justice of our course
and
the undoubting belief
of our ability to maintain it

And now the State
having resumed her separate and equal place among nations
deems it due to herself
to the remaining United States of America
and to the nations of the world
that she should declare the immediate causes
which have led to this act

Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery
the greatest material interest of the world
labor supplies the product
which constitutes by far
the largest and most important portions
of commerce of the earth
none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun
products have become necessities of the world
a blow at slavery
is a blow at commerce and civilization

The Constitution declares that persons charged with crimes in one State
fleeing to another
shall be delivered up
on the demand of the executive authority of the State
from which they may flee
to be tried in the jurisdiction where the crime was committed
It would appear difficult to employ language freer from ambiguity
the non-slave-holding States
generally have wholly refused
to deliver up to us persons
charged with crimes affecting slave property

The feeling of anti-slavery
which it was well known was very general among the people
had been long dormant or passive
it needed only a question to arouse it into aggressive activity
It has enlisted its press
its pulpit
its schools against us
until the whole popular mind
is excited and inflamed with prejudice

It refuses the admission of new slave States into the Union
seeks to extinguish it
by confining it within its present limits
denying the power of expansion
advocates negro equality
socially and politically
promotes insurrection and incendiarism
in our midst
It has made combinations
formed associations
to carry out its schemes of emancipation in the States
and wherever else slavery exists

frequent violations of the Constitution
encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States
in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States
They are content if they can only injure us
no choice left us but submission
to the mandates of abolition
or a dissolution of the Union
whose principles had been subverted
to work out our ruin

their avowed purpose
is to subvert our society
subject us not only to the loss of our property
but the destruction of ourselves
our wives
our children
and the desolation of our homes
our altars
our firesides
To avoid these evils
we resume the powers
which our fathers delegated
to the Government of the United States
and henceforth will seek
new safeguards for our liberty
equality
security
and
tranquility