Compare And Contrast Civil War And Reconstruction Dbq

As the nation descended further into a split entity, with the issue of slavery at the forefront of the debate. The North and South needed to find a way to deal with their differences before the Union fell in shambles. The Compromise of 1850 was passed after long extensive debate in congress, the compromise was intended to settle the debate over how slavery would be controlled throughout the expanding nation. The Fugitive Slave Act was included in the compromise to satisfy southern states, that wanted to preserve the institution of slavery. The act allowed for run away slaves to be hunted down and returned to their past owners, even after they made it to the free states in the North. The Southerners wished to preserve their right to property, which is among the “Unalienable Rights”. Some northern states refuse to recognize the law which infuriated the South because they saw this as an explicit violation of the slave holder’s rights, this intensified the South’s urge to become a separate State.

The controversy over slaves ultimately led to the secession. Abraham Lincoln thinks slavery is wrong and he wants to stop it from spreading. Earlier, he had warned that slavery could separate a nation. In the 1860 election Lincoln is elected, but southerners are worried he will end slavery forever. Southern states start to secede because they are worried. First South Carolina succeeds, then North, Texas, and then Florida too. They give themselves a new name called the Confederate States of America. (Wise...)

Both Civil War and Reconstruction should be considered as a success because two important Civil War achievements outweighed its failures: destruction of slavery, which challenged ideas about citizenship, and openness of new doors of opportunity for women, which challenged traditional women roles and two important Reconstruction achievements that outweighed Reconstruction’s failures: the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which produced positive changes in American political and racial relations.

Arguments that slavery was undesirable for the nation had long existed, and the northern states all abolished slavery after 1776. In the interest of maintaining unity, politicians had mostly moderate opposition to slavery, resulting in numerous compromises such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Compromise of 1850. However, The compromise that was reached (the Kansas-Nebraska Act) outraged too many northerners, which triggered violent uprisings from the North. These uprisings angered the Southern states greatly.

Lincoln opposed the breakaway of the Southern states, and this led to the American Civil War. Lincoln had preserved the union during it. The Civil War had cost more than many people’s prediction. Lincoln appeared to lose the support from the populations, but Lincoln had enough patience. His leadership and the attitude of pleasing to work with his patience helped him to held the country together. At the beginning, the Civil War was to help the survival of Union, but as the war going on and getting progress, Lincoln gain more trust, love, and support from the general population. IN this situation, Lincoln made the issue of releasing the

After working tirelessly to set forth his Compromise, Henry Clay’s Compromise finally became a law in 1850. Initially, the Compromise of 1850 slit up guidelines about slavery for the North and South. In the North, CA was a free state, the slave trade was prohibited in Wash. DC, and unrelated to slavery, TX lost their boundary conflict with NM. In the South, slaveholding was permitted in Wash. DC, and the creation of the Fugitive slave act. The fugitive slave act gave federal support to slave catchers. Although the N and S both benefitted from the compromise, the North technically gained more out of it. The Compromise of 1850 was significant because it gave the South the Fugitive slave law, and gave the North a new free state, CA—everybody wins!

The sweeping arm of change was tried on in the nation during 1867-1877 and 1954-1968. Two of the nation’s most important time periods are the Post-Civil War Era and the Civil Rights Movement. Both attempted to become a large change in the way the nation functioned, by race equality through politics and social norms.

The South felt that they had multiple reasons for secession, although the North did not fully support their decisions. They wanted to secede for their own safety since different abolitionist groups were attacking them. Also, Lincoln’s inauguration further encouraged the Southern states to secede because Lincoln did not agree with slavery and wanted it abolished. Another reason for secession was the increase of sectional hostility. The Southern states seceded from the Union because of the results of the election of 1860, the existing hostility between the North and the South, and the attempts performed by extreme abolitionists who tried to end slavery.

The coexistence of a slave owning south with an increasingly anti-slavery north made conflict likely. It was formidable to decide whether such states like the ones gained from the Mexican War should be slavery or anti-slavery, which either way would disrupt the balance between the slave and antislavery states. This divided the Union and Confederacy even further. Later on, President Lincoln sought not to propose federal laws against slavery where it already existed, but he had in his 1858 House Divided speech, expressed a desire to “arrest the further spread of it “(Doc. G). Much of the political battle in the 1850s focused on the expansion of slavery into the newly created territories. All of the organized territories were likely to become free soil states which increased the southern movement toward secession. Both north and south assumed that if slavery could not expand it would become nonexistent. Southern fears of losing control of the federal government to anti-slavery forces, and northern feared that the slave power already controlled the government; these thoughts brought the sectional disagreements. The morality of slavery, the scope of democracy, and the economic merits of free labor versus slave plantations caused the Whig and know nothing parties to collapse and the free soil party to arrive, ruining the resolve of compromise.

Slavery was a major reason why compromise failed. The Compromise of 1850 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820 were established in order to unite the nation. During this time, the South was unable to resolve their political conflicts, dealing with slavery. Henry Clay once said, “it is impossible that South Carolina ever desired for a moment to become a separate and independent state.” (Doc A). Although the Anti- Slavery convention of 1835 went against slavery, the people who attended did not believe congress had the “right to interfere with any of the slave states.” (Doc B). This evidence proves the fact that compromise was not significantly affected by political opinions. However, the North was not in favor of the Compromise of 1850, which included the fugitive slave law and the establishment of the Wilmot Proviso, due to the fact that slavery threatened political stances. In the election of 1860, tensions surfaced as no southern state voted for Lincoln. However he won the majority of the popular and electoral vote. (Doc H). Slavery caused many political issues, which ultimately resulted in southern withdrawal and breakdown in

Going by this speech, there should have been no reason for secession as he promised he would not interfere with slavery where it already existed. However, Southerners still though of Lincoln as an abolitionist and were worried that he would completely abolish slavery. This emphasises that Southerners were unhappy that a Northern, anti-slavery party had won the presidency. As a result of Lincolns election, South Caroline, followed by six other states, seceded from the Union. This further divided the nation, which in turn led to the Civil War. Tulloch backs up this view as he argues that:

The Secession of the South from the Union When the United States of America expanded westward, they achieved manifest destiny. This above all, raised tensions between the North and the South. Although they were a union, many problems arose, the main issue being slavery. These problems eventually led to the Civil War. The North thrived on factories, while the South thrived on agriculture, causing them to utilize slaves.

By 1854 the Missouri Organization was overdue along with other states. As the falling out of slaves was becoming very common in certain territories which further complicated this issue, along with the location of the projected Transcontinental Railroad. This Missouri Compromise was the third debate on slavery in that certain area since 1789. The Kansas Nebraska, in 1854, was very contradicted to the 1820 resolution to slavery, although the new compromise became known as one of the major elements that led to the Civil war. This Compromise was created by Stephen A. Douglas who was a chairman of the Senate committee on territories. After three months of debate in congress, Douglas, who was supported by President Pierce and the southerners, saw it adopted. This bill that was reported in Jan, 1852 stated that slavery should be left to the territorial settlers themselves, in its final bill provided the creation of two new territories Kansas and Nebraska- instead of the one. The First state would be for slavery, second would be a free state. The result was it created more of a sectional division, it also created a new Political Organization, this is what propelled to the civil war.

The election of Lincoln in November 1860 was the final trigger for secession.[74] Efforts at compromise, including the "Corwin Amendment" and the "Crittenden Compromise", failed. Southern leaders feared that Lincoln would stop the expansion of slavery and put it on a course toward extinction. The slave states, which had already become a minority in the House of Representatives, were now facing a future as a perpetual minority in the Senate and Electoral College against an increasingly powerful North. Before Lincoln took office in March 1861, seven slave states had declared their secession and joined together to form the Confederacy.

As America began to expand, first with the lands gained from the Louisiana Purchase and later with the Mexican War, the question of whether new states admitted to the union would be slave or free. The Missouri Compromise passed in 1820 made a rule that prohibited slavery in states from the former Louisiana Purchase the latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes north except in Missouri. During the Mexican War, conflict started about what would happen with the new territories that the US expected to gain upon victory. David Wilmot proposed the Wilmot Proviso in 1846 which would ban slavery in the new lands. However, this was shot down to much debate. The Compromise of 1850 was created by Henry Clay and others to deal with the balance between slave and free states, northern and southern interests. One of the provisions was the fugitive slave act that was discussed in number one above. Another issue that further increased tensions was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. It created two new territories that would allow the states to use popular sovereignty to determine whether they would be free or slave. The real issue occurred in Kansas where proslavery Missourians