Essay On The Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Civil War

The Confederate States of America In February 1861 the American Southerners fearing for the crash of their economy, seceded from the Union. President Lincoln was elected in November of 1861 the Southerners knew their slaves would be abolished and their economy would collapse so they seceded. South Carolina was the first state to succeed from the Union. Ten other states soon followed the same path. The Confederate Army began the Civil War by seizing Fort Sumter in South Carolina, believing they could win.

What many people don’t know is that the original intent of the Civil War was to preserve the Union. Many factors went into Lincoln’s decision to also address slavery through this war. For one, the number of men enlisting in the war was dwindling, and it became apparent that black manpower would be absolutely necessary to win the war. Also, the increasingly upset Radical Republicans and abolitionists let their opinions be known and persuaded the citizens of the North that the war could not be won without attacking the issue of slavery. Finally, Lincoln believed that transforming the dispute from a conflict to preserve the Union to a crusade against slavery would dissuade the threatening British and French from supporting the Confederacy.

“If anything, the opposition was more powerful and effective in the North than in the South.” (Why Did the Confederacy Lose?, pg 120) However the powerful opposition in the North w... ... middle of paper ... ...t and see it as a way to get rid of the moral burden of slavery. The conservative stands Lincoln originally held were broken with the Emancipation Proclamation, causing a massive internal struggle in the South to bring them down. This is why the North had already won to the extent of Lincoln’s conservative political stands. “Having taken an oath to preserve and defend the Constitution, which protected slavery, “I did not consider that I had a right to touch the ‘State’ institution of ‘Slavery’ until all other measures for restoring the Union had failed….”” (Who Freed The Slaves, pg 203) The attrition strategy was halted with the mental conversion of the war being a moral war and the internal divisions in the South would finally clinch victory for the North. However all other advantages were possessed by the North and therefore the North had won the Civil War before it began to the extent of Lincoln’s conservative political stands.

When Abraham Lincoln won the Presidential Election of 1860 for the newly formed Republican Party, many Southern Citizens were fully convinced that they had lost their power in National Government and they may as well just secede from the Union. Unsurprisingly, that is exactly what they did. Another reason that The Civil W... ... middle of paper ... ...Northerners couldn’t respect their wishes to decide how to deal with slavery and fugitive slaves in their own states, they may as well not even be a part of the United States. This led to secession and once again, The Civil War. When two different sections of the same Country have differing moral beliefs, different say in National government, and different views on Federal Laws and Civil liberties, there is no ultimate agreement that can settle it all.

In 1860 when Abraham Lincoln won the presidency, he pledge with his admirable strong voice to keep slavery out of territories. The Confederate States of America helped form a new nation by the slave states in the South. The Northerner people were not impressed with Lincoln’s decision; they feared that the democracy would create the United States and form smaller countries. War broke out at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay in 1861, forcing the United States to lower our pride and joy, the flag, and fired their shots on federal garrison. By the end of 1861, around a million armed men shook hands with each other in the two state stretches from Virginia to Missouri.

The Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation led to the end of slavery, and is one of the most controversial documents in American history. Human slavery was the focus of political conflict in the United States from the 1830s to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for presidency in 1860, personally abhorred slavery and was pledged to prevent it from spreading to western territories. At the same time he believed that the Constitution did not allow federal government to prohibit slavery in states where it already existed. The election of Lincoln led to the secession of eleven slave-holding states and the beginning of the civil war.

In this constitution was also written that slaves are federal property, but the Northern states didn't wanted to approve this bill. The Southerners decided at Fort... ... middle of paper ... ...eir lives.See 5 The economic damage through the destruction was enormous. Six days after the war Abraham Lincon was killed by a southerner. His ambition to enforce the abolition of slavery in all the states of the Union, was realized a short time after his death. It took a long time for the Southern economy to recovered from the war and were reintegrated socially and politically in the equal rights of the Union.

The president Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which meant that their goal was to end slavery. Slavery was the main cause of the American Civil War which was believed by both Union and Confederate soldiers. Some thought that slavery was an evil act that went against the Republicanism in the United States and others believed it was not wrong. The United States tried to stop slavery by stopping the expansion of it. Soon slavery began to get better in the North and slavery was nearly wiped out there but in ... ... middle of paper ... ...ry of the American Civil War.

After the conclusion of America’s Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln pitched the idea of “Reconstruction,” which would bring the southern states back into the Union. President Lincoln, according to many radical Republicans, was too gentle on the south. The government was divided on how to solve the issue of readmitting the southern states back into the Union. In addition to that, the government was not certain on what rights to enumerate to the newly emancipated slaves. These issues became more difficult to solve after President Lincoln was murdered.

The famous quote by President Lincoln, “A house divided against itself, will not stand” was the motto for the civil war. What he meant by that was the United States was no longer united. That if we continue to fight amongst ourselves that we would not, as a single united country, prosper. The speech took a great toll on the congress and it was decided that it would be in the country’s best interest if slavery would be illegalized in the United States of America. Soon after the Emancipation Proclamation was passed, the thirteenth amendment was presented to congress to stop all slavery.