The survival of the American Dream depends on the maintenance of the Union between North and South. If the South were to become its own country, neither power would become the grand entity that the framers envisioned when they created the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For example, the Southern economy is primarily agricultural, sending raw materials to the North, where the industrial sectors turn those materials into products for sale throughout the entire nation. This will help the North prevail in a conflict between the two regions, because the North has the wherewithal to build munitions and keep its supply lines running more efficiently than the more agrarian South.
Slavery is an important question, even though the Southerners say that it’s all about “states’ rights.” The Southern economy would shudder mightily if the plantation owners had to pay their slaves; the impact of the freed slaves on society, particularly if there were not sufficient employment or housing to accommodate them, would also be significant. However, in the interest of humanity, it is time to end the institution. In my first Inaugural Address, I said that I had no “lawful right” to “interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists” (Lincoln). However, I believe that it should end.
Should the South secede, I would intervene immediately and attempt to force reunification. While the states do have significant rights in the areas of policy, they do not have the right to leave. I would move to abolish slavery throughout the entire United States. The Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act were just band-aids used to cover the gaping wound of the slavery question, as the Bleeding Kansas conflicts showed. Ultimately, the Union must stay together; it must become a place where all are free.
