The fabric of history shows the design and spirals the elections of 1860, the rise of the Republican Party, and the bills pushed through congress and the presidency left on our nation. This paper will examine show the indelible marks of the 1860 election and its importance as a prelude to the Civil War. With this examination revealing how the Republican Party was able to rise to power so quickly, and how that rise came to affect the entire nation not only at that moment in time but also forward into the future of the United States of America. To help us look at this specific instance in history we must look at the several aspects including the Republican’s rise to power and the effect of the bills they pushed through Congress. There were several bills during this time period that were opposed by the South. The passage of these bills would most likely not have been possible if the Southern Democrats had still held power in the legislation. Numerous bills could be examined, but to save time we will examine two that in my opinion are most important. They are the Homestead Act and the Morrill Tariff. Examining both the rise of the Republican Party and these two bills it will become clear as to why the election of 1860 was one of the most important and influential elections in American history.
The Election of 1860 was important to America for a number of reasons. First, this election was the last election before the American Civil War. Due to the resulting outcome, the election was seen as one of the main reasons leading to session and ultimately to war. Additionally the election highlighted the emergence of the Republican Party to the national stage. The same Republican party which would ultimately prove to be influential and ...
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... nation wash changed by decisions made before and after the election and how it shaped the political landscape prior to the Civil War. The Republican Party was able to rise to power quickly shape legislation and change the policies to meet their agenda. The Homestead Act promoted vast population of remote locations of the United States. The Republicans were able to pass this bill because they had a favorable view from inner city residents and more highly populated areas. This popularity also paved the way for the Republican plans to implement the Morrill Tariff Act and their cemented the party’s impact on the north and voting public. The lasting and verifiable changes to the nation due to the confluence of the 1860 election, the rise of the Republican Party and the passage of the Homestead Act and The Morrill Tariff Act prove the importance of this period in time.
This decade, surrounded by great periods in US history such as the Gold Rush and the Civil War, was in direct correlation with everything around it, being greatly influenced by the Gold Rush and directly influencing the Civil War as well as making ripples throughout history. Understanding influential periods before the crisis of the crisis of the 1850’s, the substance of the discussion, and the ominous effects of the 1850’s crisis, it is difficult to deny the importance of that decade in American
Everything in history seems to lead to something else. The Civil War was no exception. It started with the creation of parties. Thomas Jefferson started the Anti-Federalist Party that would eventually evolve into Andrew Jackson’s Democratic Party. Policies were issued and the two party system started to collapse and sectionalism started to rise. Instead of Democrat versus Whig, it was North Versus South. Neither side could agree on any issues even when compromises were issued neither side really liked the terms. Every act lead to an argument and every argument led to a compromise which would only last for a few years. Eventually the South was tired of not getting their way and seceded from the Union. The underlying cause to the Civil War was sectionalism but many other causes were based on it.
Had Thomas Jefferson and James K. Polk exercised greater moderation in their attainment of western territory, the polarization of American North and South need not have been as drastic as it proved. Forcing the hotly contentious issue of slavery to the forefront, sudden westward expansion reshaped American sociopolitical dynamics, carving a deep philosophical chasm between the North and South. As the existence of such a divide equated to the decomposition of both regions’ economies, the war of ideas waged in broadsheets and in the halls of Congress gave way to a war fought with bayonets, on the plains of Kansas and, later, in the East.
In 1856, a Presidential election occurred in the United States at a crucial period. Sectionalism was at an all time high and a leader was needed to unite the country. However, the man who won the election did not prove to be this leader. Instead, his platform was based on a deliberate failure to lead. Due to James Buchanan’s position that supported popular sovereignty in the expanding United States, the country divided even further over the topic of slavery to the point that the Civil War became inevitable.
The 1864 presidential election was one of the important elections in the American History. In the middle of a devastating civil war, the United States had held its presidential election almost without discussing any alternative (American President: A Reference Resource). None of the other Democratic nations had ever conducted a national election during the time of war. While there was still talk going in postponing the election. That was when Lincoln pointed out that America needs a free government and without conducting the election we have ruined ourselves (Boller P.115). So, before even the year had ended United States had gone forward with its voting just as in peacetime.
From these documents, would you say that Lincoln was prepared to fight the Civil War when the southern states seceded to create the Confederacy, or did he seem hesitant and indecisive?
The debates previewed the issues that the nation would face in the Presidential election of 1860. While many topics were discussed in these debates, the one, which caused the most contention, was that of slavery, specifically its role in the territories and forthcoming states (Encyclopedia Britannica). Other topics discussed throughout the debates were the “authority of states to control slavery within their own borders and whether the Dred Scott decision had been a reasonable one” (Schulmeister). Douglas and Lincoln’s views on the expansion of slavery were diverse. Stephen Douglas was ...
Schultz, S. (1999) American History 102: Civil War to the Present. Retrieved April 10, 2005 from http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture25.html.
Between 1870 and 1900 (The Gilded Age), the economy had a major boom. The United States went from “Lincoln’s America- a world centered on the small farm and artisan workshop- to a mature industrial society.” By 1913, America produced about one- third of the world’s industrial productivity. With the new upgrades, like the railroad and the industrial companies the economy was flourishing with the growing supply of labor, immigrants. The new industrial economy came with a price. The politics was ill equipped to handle the problems that came with the rapid growth of the economy. The Democrats were not for high tariff but the party remained closely linked to New York bankers and having nothing to do with the debt-ridden agricultural areas. While on the other hand, the Republicans favored the eastern industrialist and bankers also putting the farmer in the Southwest at a disadvantage.
The explosion of the American Civil War was caused by a vast number of conflicting principles and prejudices, fueled by sectional differences, and set afire by a very unfortunate set of political events. Undoubtedly, the central theme of almost all of the events that led up to the Civil War was one way or another, related to the dispute of slavery. Throughout the nineteenth century, slavery-related tensions brewed to such an extent, that politicians often took accustom to avoiding the hot topic altogether, because they were too scared of either starting a big political feud, or losing votes from one side of the issue or the other. More specifically, three events that were most instrumental in bringing about the Civil War were the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and the Presidential election of 1860. Because of such strong reactions to these events, the Civil War was practically unstoppable, however if the parties wanted to avoid a war altogether, they could have advocated more compromise and popular sovereignty.
The presidential elections of 1860 was one of the nation’s most memorable one. The north and the south sections of country had a completely different vision of how they envision their home land. What made this worst was that their view was completely opposite of each other. The north, mostly republican supporters, want America to be free; free of slaves and free from bondages. While on the other hand, the south supporters, mostly democratic states, wanted slavery in the country, because this is what they earned their daily living and profit from.
The American Civil War was the bloodiest military conflict in American history leaving over 500 thousand dead and over 300 thousand wounded (Roark 543-543). One might ask, what caused such internal tension within the most powerful nation in the world? During the nineteenth century, America was an infant nation, but toppling the entire world with its social, political, and economic innovations. In addition, immigrants were migrating from their native land to live the American dream (Roark 405-407). Meanwhile, hundreds of thousand African slaves were being traded in the domestic slave trade throughout the American south. Separated from their family, living in inhumane conditions, and working countless hours for days straight, the issue of slavery was the core of the Civil War (Roark 493-494). The North’s growing dissent for slavery and the South’s dependence on slavery is the reason why the Civil War was an inevitable conflict. Throughout this essay we will discuss the issue of slavery, states’ rights, American expansion into western territories, economic differences and its effect on the inevitable Civil War.
Between the period of 1820-1861 there was a number of political compromises done in order reduce the sectional tension between the North and the South. While each of the compromises created helped the issue that the country was facing at that time, they did not help overall. The compromises were only a temporary fix for the country’s problem of sectionalism. Therefore while political compromises were effective in reducing the tension between the North and the South it did not help in preventing the civil war.
Roark, J.L., Johnson, M.P., Cohen, P.C., Stage, S., Lawson, A., Hartmann, S.M. (2009). The american promise: A history of the united states (4th ed.), The New West and Free North 1840-1860, The slave south, 1820-1860, The house divided 1846-1861 (Vol. 1, pp. 279-354).
The Radical Republicans were a political in the north devoted to a vigorous prosecution of the Civil War. Slavery led in the antebellum years to independent anti slavery organizations in the Liberty Party, Free Soil Party, and the Republican Party. The “radicals” emerged as the conscience of the party, attempting to keep it true to it’s original idealism. Democrats, and even some conservative republicans, found what they perceived as