A Confederate Catechism

This classic, penned by the son of U.S. President John Tyler, answers the following questions:


1. What was the cause of secession in 1861?


2. Was slavery the cause of secession or the war?


3. Was the extension of slavery the purpose of secession?


4. Was Secession the cause of the war?


5. What then was the cause of the war?


6. Did the South fight for slavery or the extension of slavery?


7. Did the South fight for the overthrow of the United States Government?


8. What did the South fight for?


9. Did the South in firing on Fort Sumter begin the war?


10. Why did Lincoln break the truce at Fort Pickens and precipitate the war by sending troops to Fort Sumter?


11. Did Lincoln carry on the war for the purpose of freeing the slaves?


12. Did Lincoln, by his conquest of the South, save the Union?


13. Could Lincoln have “saved” the Union by some other method than war?


14. Does any present or future prosperity of the South justify the War of 1861-1865?


15. Had the South gained its independence, would it have proved a failure?


16. Were the Southerners “rebels” in seceding from the Union?


17. Did the South, as alleged by Lincoln in his messages and in his Gettysburg address, fight to destroy popular government throughout the world?


18. Was Lincoln’s proclamation freeing the slaves worthy of the praise which it has received?


19. Would Lincoln have saved the South from the horrors of Reconstruction if he had survived the war?


20. Is there any truth in the statement that the South seceded from the Union because it saw itself menaced with the loss of the rule which it had enjoyed from the beginning?