How does the Declaration of Independence relate to the Civil War? How did it lead to the Civil War?

(Written for my Year 12 History essay)

... The ‘War Between States’ (Civil War) was influenced by conflicting views on the state and federal rights. The quest for rights began over 100 years prior to the Civil War during the American Revolutionary War, a conflict between Great Britain and its American colonies who disagreed with their treatment as part of the empire. By the Treaty of Paris that ended the war in 1783, the colonies won their independence[1]. After this revolution, two separate groups emerged: those arguing for greater rights for individual states and those arguing for more control for the federal government. The first organised government that followed the American Revolution was a loose confederation. At the time there were thirteen states that had a weak federal government, known as the Articles of Confederation. This then led to the formation of the US Constitution at the Constitutional Convention. Strong advocates for increased state’s rights, such as Thomas Jefferson, were not present at the meeting, and therefore their opinions were not considered. The new constitution ignored the rights of states to continue to act independently, and many believed states should be allowed to individually decide if they were willing to accept the federal acts in the Constitution. Nullification, where states could rule federal acts unconstitutional, was considered and denied, and in its place states moved towards secession. This secession saw eleven states break away from the Union, therefore becoming part of the Confederacy. Of these eleven states, four did not secede until after the beginning of the Civil War. This secession added to the already present hostility on the issue of slavery, dividing the country between the North and South even further. This evidence suggests that disagreements over state and federal rights contributed to the outbreak of the American Civil War between the Union and Confederacy, which was formed through secession.