While the North believed that the states and the federal government should have equal power, the South was constantly pushing for more. “The southern states felt that the federal government was taking away their rights and powers.” (“American Civil War”) The South led by South Carolina’s Robert Y. Hayne was successful in achieving states rights. The disagreement over states rights has been ongoing since 1776, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Secession was one of the many causes that caused the deadliest war ever. “Even as Lincoln took office in March 1861, Confederate forces threatened the federal-held Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.” Many southern states declared they no longer wanted to be a part of the United States when Lincoln was elected, they believed they were quite entitled to depart. “With Lincoln’s election the country had fallen under the control of a great sectional party, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of the equality of all men, irrespective of race and color - a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition the the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelation of Divine Law.” (Dew 11) Seven states in the lower South, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas separated from the Union following Lincoln’s electoral victory in