was elected president. Other states followed suit, and the North attempted to negotiate and even to compromise with the Southern states on a variety of issues. All forts and navy yards in the seceded states were seized by the Confederation. The Confederation demanded Forts Sumter and Pickens as territory that the federal government was now holding illegally. The Confederate congress resolved to obtain possession of the forts immediately, and when they tried and fired on Fort Sumter, the Civil War was started.
The battle between North and South was in part a continuation of the debate over national control opposed to states' rights, as noted. The Southern perspective was that self-government was best protected in local units such as the state, and southerners were prepared to fight for their rights against any perceived tyrannical encroachment from the North:
They saw themselves, in fact, as true revolutionary patriots. Like northerners, southerners cherished the Union. But they preferred the loose confederacy of th
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