My grandmother bought a life insurance policy for me in 1980...?
Considering that you already have your own life insurance it is not likely that it would be worthwhile to continue the coverage. Back in the 80's these policies were sold with very low death benefits ($1,000 to $5,000). The idea was that if you died there would be money to cover funeral expenses. Some of these policies also included a guarantee of insurability where at certain points you were given the option to continue the policy and increase the death benefit without regard to any health conditions. Not all bad if you have no life insurance and you now have health conditions that prevent you from qualifying for any coverage, but as you note you do have insurance. As to the cash value it is probably a very small amount. These policies were never sold as a savings vehicle so cash value accumulation was not a stated goal. As others have noted call the company for the actual cash value amount and to find out what your options are.
For those who think the Civil war was fought over states rights. What rights did the southern states want in?
The Civil War isn't something that just sprung up overnight. The first issue that started the crisis over state's rights was the issue of nullification. The South felt that individual states should have the power to nullify federal laws that they disagreed with. The nullification crisis occured during the presidency of Andrew Jackson and came to ahead over the Tariff of 1828. The South lost the battle over nullification, and began to feel that their interests were not being represented by the government. The abolitionist movement became increasingly important and influential in the North during the 1830s and 1840s, which increased the South's feeling of alienation. They began to feel that the government would not leave them alone and let them tend to their own lives, but was planning on interfering and running everything. Less government was very important back then, and too much government interference in day to day activities was not at all desired. Immediately were following were a number of crises concerning new states being admitted into the own, upsetting the delicate balance between slave and non slave states. With the election of Lincoln in 1861, they felt that they had lost any chance of being allowed to go their own way and live out their lives in the culture and society they had created. However, all of this feeling was over 30 years in the making, and their concern over state's rights was quite a valid concern for that time period.