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What were the causes of the civil war
The reasons for civil war
Causes of american civil war
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During the early nineteenth century the United States began to split, but at the middle of the century people views started to become more concrete and so separation in the Union became more drastic. From 1850 to 1861 it was apparent that the union was separating into the North and the South. The Constitution played a major role in the separation that was occurring. Through sectional favoritism of bits and pieces of the Constitution and through ideas that were left out of it, the Constitution led to sectional discord and nearly the failure of the union.
A major issue that caused major sectional discord was the constitutionality of slavery. In the constitution there was no mention of slavery of fears that it would divide the nation, but this very idea did cause division. Also, because of the absence of slavery many compromises and new ideas needed to be made and reinforced so that they could last. A major compromise that was reached involving slavery was the compromise of 1850. The constitutionality of this compromise was being disputed. This compromise was the first to create sectionalism in the union (Document A). It also created disunity and led to hot tempers and other events. Another piece of the compromise was a more stringent fugitive slave laws. To Southerners this piece of the compromise was beneficial to them because they lost many slaves to the Underground Railroad. On the other hand though some Northerners disliked this stricter law and refused to enforce the law. Bostonian officials even went to the lengths of making posters warning slaves to watch out for police officers because they were instructed to capture them even though they didn’t want to enforce the stricter law (Document C). Also, they didn’t wan...
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...es of America in 1861. Jefferson Davis told his Confederate Congress that because of the flaws in the Constitution it would be unjust to stay in the Union and it was in South’s best interest to secede because amendments weren’t being made that would favor the growth of the South (Document H). This secession inevitably ended with Civil War and the major cause of the war would become the flaws that were drawn out of the Constitution.
By analyzing the evidence presented, it is apparent that the interpretations of the Constitution and flaws that were found were the major causes of events that lead up to Civil War. The Civil war would not have happened if the flaws were amended thus ending the fighting over the constitutionality of certain issues. In conclusion the Constitution has done many things that united and divided the Union because of the ideals of man.
In Apostles of Disunion, Dew presents compelling documentation that the issue of slavery was indeed the ultimate cause for the Civil War. This book provided a great deal of insight as to why the South feared the abolition of slavery as they did. In reading the letters and speeches of the secession commissioners, it was clear that each of them were making passionate pleas to all of the slave states in an effort to put a stop to the North’s, and specifically Lincoln’s, push for the abolishment of slavery. There should be no question that slavery had everything to do with being the cause for the Civil War. In the words of Dew, “To put it quite simply, slavery and race were absolutely critical elements in the coming of the war” (81). This was an excellent book, easy to read, and very enlightening.
In The article “Slavery, the Constitutional, and the Origins of the Civil War”, Paul Finkelman discusses some of the events that he believes lead the United States to have a Civil War. He discusses how both the North and the South territories of the Untied States did not see eye to eye when it came to ab...
One huge issue that led the country to sectionalism was slavery as some people wanted to support and allow slavery, whereas others didn’t. Sectionalism became more noticeable during the Missouri Compromise as the government didn’t allow slavery above the 36’30 line. As a result, the Northern and Southern region became more defined as the North wanted to abolish slavery, but the South wanted to keep it as the country expanded. When America added the Mexican te...
Document A supported that after the War of 1812 the government was losing a sense of purpose. Unlike before, farmers are losing money. In contrast manufacturers are making more money. The Tariff of 1816 increased the amount of manufactures. Served to raise revenues to operate the national government and to protect U.S. manufactured items from overseas competition. This brought up serious issues as there were many different ways everyone wanted to run the government. This also gave people different views on how congress should regulate commerce and handle taxes. Document F talks about the Missouri Compromise. Missouri was thought to disturb the thoughts on slavery. The Missouri Compromise was done in order balance of power in Congress between slave and free states. Missouri was a slave state while Maine was a free state. This shows sectionalism as this thought on slavery distinctly separates the nation into Southern beliefs and Northern beliefs. This Compromise shows the gap between the north and
In the 1860’s the United States weren’t united because of the issue of slavery. The civil war was never just about getting the union back together, but about making it count and getting rid of slavery. The south wanted their slaves and would say they are “-the happiest, and in some, the freest people in the world”. (Doc 5) However, the north knew that was not true because of Harriet Beecher Stowe's “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. In 1854 when the Kansas-Nebraska act was passed it caused some issues. Anti-slavery supporters were not happy because they did not want expansion of slavery, but the pro-slavery supporters weren’t happy because they wanted slavery everywhere for sure. (Doc. 7)The Kansas-Nebraska act caused trouble before it was even passed, Senator Charles Sumner argued against and attacked pro-slavery men causing Preston Brooks to beat Sumner with a cane. The south praised Brooks while the north felt for Sumner. (Doc 8) In 1858 during his acceptance speech Lincoln said his famous line, “A house divided
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...mfortable and stubborn, resisting the change that was coming about in the country. The North being so eager to expand and industrialize the country and establish their independency from the British. Somewhere along the road, the states stopped working toward a common goal and became more concerned with their own well-being. With each attempt made to keep the states united, they were only building up more harsh feeling toward each other. Even with all the ill feelings between the regions because of their sectionalism, the South succeeding from the union and a war being fought within our own nation, our people against our people, the United States managed to struggle through the sectionalism of 19th century and remain one nation, united.
Lincoln also claimed that the constitution binds the states together and that the country cannot legally be broken up. The American Civil War was caused because of the North and South differences in economies, disagreements about abolishing slavery and whether the state or federal government had more power. These three factors played a key role in America's deadliest war. Understanding the causes of the Civil War is important because the war was one of the most important events in our nation's history.
In the years paving the way to the Civil War, both north and south were disagreeable with one another, creating the three “triggering” reasons for the war: the fanaticism on the slavery issue, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the separation of the Democratic Party. North being against the bondage of individuals and the South being for it, there was no real way to evade the clash. For the south slavery was a form of obtaining a living, without subjugation the economy might drop majorly if not disappear. In the North there were significant ethical issues with the issue of subjugation. Amazing measures to keep and dispose of subjugation were taken and there was never a genuine adjusted center for bargain. Despite the fact that there were a lot of seemingly insignificant issues, the fundamental thing that divided these two states was bondage and the flexibilities for it or against. With these significant extremes, for example, John Brown and Uncle Tom's Cabin, the south felt disdain towards the danger the Northerners were holding against their alleged flexibilities. The more hatred the South advanced, the more combative they were to anything the Northerners did. Northerners were irritated and it parted Democrats over the issue of bondage and made another Republican gathering, which included: Whigs, Free Soilers, Know Nothings and previous Democrats and brought about a split of segments and abbreviated the street to common war. Southerners loathed the insubordination of the north and started to address how they could stay with the Union.
There were many problems, events, and situations that led to the Civil War. One of the major reasons for the outbreak of the war was sectionalism. Once the United States was split, many of the country's fundamental issues were disputed, with slavery being at the top of the list. Some of the other major issues in dispute were representation, tariffs, and states' rights. Sectionalism is defined as, the sharp socio-economic differences that divided the Northern and the Southern states in the U.S.
The new territories and the discussion of whether they would be admitted to the Union free or slave-holding stirred up animosity. The Compromise of 1850 which offered stricter fugitive slave laws, admitted California as a free state, allowed slavery in Washington D.C., and allowed new territories to choose whether they wanted to be slave-holding or free was supposed to help ease tension between the North and South. Yet Southern states wanted more new territories to be slave-holders so the institution of it would continue to grow. They believed slavery was a way of life and as Larrabee said in his senate speech, “You cannot break apart this organization and this system that has intertwined itself into every social and political fiber of that great people who inhabit one-half of the Union.” (“There is a Conflict of Races”).
Even though geographic and economic disputes were considered important, mainly political and social differences gave birth to the Civil War. Unable to agree about the amount of rights a state deserved, the North and South fell further away from each other. This division increased as the Fugitive Slave Law was passed and when the final verdict of Dred Scott’s case was announced. Abolitionist attempts to end slavery continued to separate the splitting sides. All in all, the Civil War started out as political and social discords, but grew into a full-scale battle deciding the fate of our nation.
As slaves began to multiply in population, Slavery became a problem that alarmed the people. The founding fathers had to put new laws into the constitution about slavery, in effort of forming an American Union. Nevertheless, the founding fathers wanted to slowly abolish slavery but the southerners would not allow that to happen. Slavery was very important in the south because slaves were the laborers on plantations. The South had the most population of slaves and based their economy on slavery. On the other hand, there was less slavery in the North. Most Northerners believed that slavery should be abolished. Most Northern states were free states, while most Southern states were considered slave states. The North and the South were developing their economy based on different bases. With the opposing views between the North and the South, it was hard for the American Union to form
The Southern and Northern states varied on many issues, which eventually led them to the Civil War. There were deep economic, social, and political differences between the North and the South. These differences stemmed from the interpretation of the United States Constitution on both sides. In the end, all of these disagreements about the rights of states led to the Civil War. There were reasons other than slavery for the South?s secession. The manifestations of division in America were many: utopian communities, conflicts over public space, backlash against immigrants, urban riots, black protest, and Indian resistance (Norton 234). America was a divided land in need reform with the South in the most need. The South relied heavily on agriculture, as opposed to the North, which was highly populated and an industrialized society. The South grew cotton, which was its main cash crop and many Southerners knew that heavy reliance on slave labor would hurt the South eventually, but their warnings were not heeded. The South was based on a totalitarian system.
After thoroughly assessing past readings and additional research on the Civil War between the North and South, it was quite apparent that the war was inevitable. Opposed views on this would have probably argued that slavery was the only reason for the Civil War. Therefore suggesting it could have been avoided if a resolution was reached on the issue of slavery. Although there is accuracy in stating slavery led to the war, it wasn’t the only factor. Along with slavery, political issues with territorial expansion, there were also economic and social differences between North and South. These differences, being more than just one or two, gradually led to a war that was bound to happened one way or another.