Was The Civil War Inevitable Essay

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A sequence of major events such as The Kansas-Nebraska Act, which called for popular sovereignty, and The Nullification Crisis, which rose controversy in southern states regarding their rights, revolved around sectional conflicts dealing with slavery which ultimately led up to the devastating outbreak of the Civil War between the opposing regions of the North and South. Although slavery did play a major role in causing the Civil War, other causes include economic differences, constitutional disputes, and political blunders along with extremism. The Civil War was an avoidable conflict between the North and South. The Civil War was not inevitable because of failures of leadership in the North and South and extremism on both sides. Leading up to the Civil War, failures of leadership were present in both the North and South. Prior to the Civil War, Lincoln’s presidential campaign was looked upon as an approach to end the expansion of slavery. The victory of the Republican party caused the succession of several southern states even before Lincoln officially took office resulting in the sharp division of regions between the North and South in terms of slavery. Because the South had an agrarian economy, it felt that the expansion of slavery kept its region stable in contrast to the Northern industrial economy. With the introduction of popular sovereignty, the power given to states to decide if it will be a free or slave state by popular vote, proposed by Senator Lewis Cass, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, failures of leadership that led to the Civil War were becoming more visible than before. Daniel Webster, a leading American Senator from Massachusetts, viewed abolition societies to be quite useless believing that their “mischiefs” in th... ... middle of paper ... ... in order to get their points and values across the thinly laid out boundary line between the North and South. Although they were often frowned upon, extremists fought to prove their opinions. It was because of causes such as failures of leadership and extremism on both sides that led to the un-inevitable American war – the Civil War. Although many major events occurred that ultimately led to the Civil War, the war could have been avoidable with proper, effective leadership and less extremism that very often ended in violence. The South had many grievances against the North while the North had its own complaints about the South as well. Initially, the Civil War was not fought for the main goal of abolishing slavery but to preserve the Union. The Civil War can be best contained and spoken of in the few words of Abraham Lincoln, “Malice toward none, charity for all…”.

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