Civil War

The final straw was the election of Abraham Lincoln as president, as the existence of slavery was threatened. As a result, most of the slave-owning southern states withdrew from the Union, and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederate States fought the Civil War for state rights, while the Union states fought to abolish slavery and preserve the Union. Political discord and social involvement contributed to the cause of the Civil War. Instead of easing tension, the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act triggered political discord, and intensified the slavery issue, ultimately leading to Civil War.

Two supporting events that slavery caused the civil war was the Missouri Conflict and the election of president Lincoln. Slavery was the root cause of the civil war because of the conflict between the north and the south centered around the beliefs in slavery. In 1818 the territory of Missouri requested to join the United State as a slave state. This raised the issue if slavery would expand towards this new territory as pro or con as a slave state which threatened the unity of the country. President Jefferson wrote letters to friends, including one to Hugh Nelson in 1820, saying: “The Missouri question is most portentous one which ever threatened our union.

The states were balanced, but this compromise was a factor for the civil war because the North was still against the expansion of slavery. Southern citizens also opposed it because it allowed Congress to make laws regarding slavery. These arguments over slavery would still continue even though the states were balanced. Later on, the Kansas- Nebraska act repealed this compromise as it allowed popular sovereignty to decide whether Kansas and Nebraska (both above the 36 30’ line) would be slave or free states. The Dred Scott decision even stated that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional by the Fifth Amendment which prevented Congress from depriving people of their property (slaves) without the due process of law.

The Missouri Compromise had an interesting political action, It depicted the norths disagreement towards slavery was more of a political issue rather than a moral argument. In the early 19th century , the north was populated with abolitionists and radicals, those who believes in abolition. Their main aim was not to stop slavery because it was inhumane, but the fact that white people were becoming unemployed and the south were becoming more powerful. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a debatable decision for the north and the south. A decision towards whether or not Missouri should come in as a slave state.

Social disputes in different viewpoints of people regarding slavery eventually initiated the Civil War. Political and social issues set off the spark that led to the Civil War. Forbidding Congress to ban slavery in federal territories, the Dred Scott Decision showed the Supreme Court’s power over Congress, which led to disunity and shock in the northern states. By electing Lincoln during the election of 1860, the South’s role on political influences diminished harshly. The Fugitive Slave Act and the abolition movement expressed people’s opinions on the debate involving slavery, between the northern and southern states.

The addition of the western territories into the United States played a large role in the coming civil war at the time. The addition of slavery in the territories threatened the balance in congress. Even with the compromises that the government where trying to make to keep peace between the north and the south they didn’t solve the underlying problem. The undoing of the Missouri compromise with the Kansan Nebraska act was supposed to be a better compromise, however this action back fired on the government and led to the first bloody battle that eventually led to a gruesome Civil War. Works Cited Kennedy, David M., and Lizabeth Cohen.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 triggered a negative reaction from both sides: the abolitionists despised the expansion of slavery in Missouri, while supporters of slavery desired more land than Missouri that allow... ... middle of paper ... ...weighed it options and each statem, one-by-one, seceded, in the hopes that slavery would be preserved. Eventually slavery did die out and the southern states were once again apart of the union, but not without a civil war. Ultimately the North and South’s differences could not be resolved through anything other than a Civil War. These causes, as well as others, left the South no other viable option, in their eyes, than to secede from the union, leading to the Civil War. Political, societal, and philosophical conflicts combined with one another to form the ultimate disagreement over slavery between the two regions.

Missouri applied for admission into the Union as a slave state; this became a problem because missouri ruined the balance for free slaves and slave states. The northern states wanted to ban slavery from occurring in missouri because the unbalanced situation it put towards the other states. In response, the southern states declared how congress doesn’t have the power to ban slavery in missouri. However, Henry Clay offers a solution, the missouri compromise of 1820. Missouri admitted as slave state and Maine becomes a free slave state.

The long and continuous conflicting views on slavery between the North and South grouped with the political power struggles over the new western territories was only further fueled with their economical and social differences. To state that the Civil War was avoidable would be just be a plain lie. The war meant to take place and it did. Works Cited 1. “American Civil War.” History.

Western expansion and the Louisiana Purchase both led to the formation of the Missouri Compromise because more states started applying for statehood, and this distorted the balance between the slave and free states. Division between the North and South increased as a result of the Missouri Compromise. It created a line that separated the Union and set it to the path of Civil War. At first, the North and South saw the compromise as a successful document that maintained the balance between the number of slave and free states; however, when the Union gained more territory through Mexican War, Congress decided to modify the existing compromise. Finally, the repeal of the compromise made the final push that led to the explosion of animosity between the North and South, which led to the Civil War.