I would like to put forward the idea that the American Civil War was in fact an extension of the two previous English Civil Wars and was fought over the English constitutional question of where sovereignty should reside within the English body politic. In order to analyse this, we need to look at the question of sovereignty within England that was settled by the Civil War of 1642-1651. This war established definitively that sovereignty resided with the people (at least many of them) through their instrument of Parliament and through parliamentary representation and not with the Crown. The second English Civil War of 1775-1781 was also fought over English constitutional concepts. That war was fought over the question of whether sovereignty should reside with the Metropolitan Parliament in Westminster or be devolved whether in whole or in part to local representative assemblies. Unfortunately, what is not taught in American schools looking at this issue is that there several British colonies on the North American mainland, the most important of which besides the 13 colonies were Nova Scotia, St. John’s Island, Quebec and Newfoundland which did not join in the Revolution. It was the fact that there was not a wholly definitive outcome of this Civil War that led to the third Civil War, and which is still influencing questions concerning the constitutional structure of the American body politic as well as that of Canada and Great Britain til this day. The second English Civil War commonly referred to as the American Revolution resulted in two political settlements, a Whig settlement which was the establishment of the United States and a Tory settlement which was the creation of Canada and its recognition of the supremacy of the Metropolitan Parliament in Westminster. A sovereignty which in fact lasted until 1982 when acts passed by the Parliament in Ottawa no longer required ratification by the Parliament in Westminster to become law. The Whig settlement was messier. The United States ended up with 13 local assemblies with some degree of sovereignty and its own weak Metropolitan Parliament as established through the Articles of Confederation. Although the way in which a central power in the United States was established through the Articles proved to be unworkable, the issue of just how much devolution of sovereignty should there be was not clearly answered. This is borne out in the Nullification Crisis and the ongoing debate about States Rights. As far as the American Civil War is concerned, although the issue of slavery may have been a triggering factor this essential question of where sovereignty should reside within the body politic which is at the heart of the constitutional system that we inherited from England, the answer was clear; it would reside with the Metropolitan Parliament in Washington and acts of the Congress of the Unted States would trump any acts of any local assembly.