Turbulent decades of sectional discord over slavery, tariffs, and the very meaning of the Constitution would finally explode into war. At no time in American history, was it more true that ideas pull triggers. Yet until now few books on the Civil War era have adequately and fairly dealt with the Southern impulse for secession.Taking a Stand recounts the personal stories of how five Southerners came to their own individual decisions to abandon the Union. Thomas Cooper (1759-1839), Robert Barnwell Rhett (1800-1876), James Henley Thorne (1812-1862), John Tyler (1790-1862), and John Adams Gilmer (1805-1868), each in his viewpoint and experience represents a current in the movement that culminated in secession. Theirs is the compelling story, of the birth of the Confederate cause.