The Civil War as one of the most infamous conflicts in American History. It was a war borne from clashing ideologies and beliefs, and divided the nation by North and South and brother against brother. The North believed in that a strong central government was the best way to govern the nation. They supported the Republican Party and wished to stop the spread of slavery to new states, and later in the war, the abolition of it in its entirety. The South believed in the rights of states to create their own laws and that the states should be more powerful than the central government. They also supported the Democratic Party and, the largest cause of the war, believed that slavery should not be abolished and should be protected. While these issues …show more content…
Some of the stronger defenses revolved around slavery’s impact on the Southern economy. Slaves were almost essential for keeping massive plantations profitable and were essential for doing manual labor that whites were not willing to do themselves. They also argued against the sudden abolition of slavery by stating how such a sudden change would cause too be a shock on the southern economy. While some of these supporters believed that slavery was a necessary evil, many Southerners actually believed that slavery was morally just and the natural state of the world. They saw themselves as being like parents to slaves, guiding them on the matters of right and wrong and taking care of their needs, and in turned believed that “a merrier being does not exist on the face of the globe than the Negro slave of the United States”. They saw slaves as inferior adolescents whom, if left alone, would perish without someone caring for them. They also made it seem as if slaves every need was actually properly catered to even though, in almost every case, a slave’s quality of life was actually almost …show more content…
In 1850, a new law was passed known as the Fugitive Slave Law. This law was passed in retaliation to the growing antislavery sentiment and the influx in escaping slaves. It made it illegal to help escaping slaves anywhere in the United States and caused escaped slaves to not attain freedom when entering a free state. In 1857 in response to this law, Dredd Scott, a slave who entered the free territories of Illinois and Wisconsin sued Sanford for his freedom. This case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court where it was then thrown out. The Supreme Court declared that Dred Scott did not have the right to sue since he was legally a piece of property; furthermore, the Supreme Court did not stop there with their ruling and declared that it was unconstitutional to ban slavery in anywhere in the United States and that slaves could not be freed by entering free states; this also effectively undid the Missouri Compromise by giving slave states an unfair advantage. This decision outraged many Northerners who had previously been moderates capable of swinging either way towards the Republican Party giving the party they needed to have a Republican president elected. Finally, with the election of Lincoln to office, the South believed that it was only a matter of time that slavery was abolished and decided to secede from the Union. This led to the Battle of Fort Sumter,
How can a war be truly just? Even if the war begins with good intention, innocent people can be harmed or killed and their property and land destroyed. Many people feel that all violence is wrong while there are many who accept war as the only option in a particular circumstance. For example, many people who joined the First Crusade felt as though they were doing the right thing. After all, Jerusalem was the home of Jesus, so Christians felt the fight was justified.
As stated above, the rapid spread of abolitionists in the northern states and the pro-slavery activism in the southern states, the United States of America was soon torn apart. In the year of 1820, an act known as the Missouri Compromise was passed, and slavery was banned from all newly created western territories. This passing caused a lot of tension in the southern states because they believed it was going to eventually diminish their industrial success. A few decades later in 1857, the United States Supreme Court made a new legal principle known as the Dred Scott Decision, which stated that African slaves (in the slave
Luckily, there were several break-aways from the Democrats of the South who decided they too thought slavery was immoral, and would go to the North. This ultimately led to the Civil
The United States would be a lot different if there had been no Civil War where at least 200,000 African Americans lost their lives.They fought for their freedom. The scars of slavery wouldn't have existed, this country would be a lot different in shape. The U.S. has a history of natives, and racist against “indigenous” immigrants. Slavery played its part in the replacing indians. At around the same time African Americans were being abused in southern states. At least 100’s of people of the Mexicans were abused as well. White aliens also got abused and “discriminated” until they were “assimilated.” The African Americans had it harder then all of the other races, because of their color. Russia also had it hard on the African Americans, Just like the United States, just because of their skin
The Dred Scott decision was significant because it was the first time since Marbury v. Madison that the Supreme Court said an act of congress was unconstitutional. It said the congress had no power to ban slavery in the federal territories; therefore, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. By doing this, the Court also said people in the territories had no right to decide whether their state should be a free or a slave state. This was known as popular sovereignty. The decision also hurt the new Republican Party which was trying to stop the spread of slavery. Further, this decision continued the conflict over slavery between the north and south and
The Civil War consisted of two separate sides, the North and South. Both sides had their differences, and both believed in them. The Northerners didn't believe in slavery and wanted it abolished, because they believed that everyone, no matter what skin color, or class your in, should have the same rights as everyone else.
To illustrate, the “growing congruence between the parties on almost all issues…dulled the sense of party difference and…eroded voters’ loyalty to the old parties” that drifted from the ideologies they embodied. Although “the two [parties]…existed in different states,” Republican William Seward announced that the “antagonistic systems [were] continually coming into closer contact”, forcing desperate citizens to turn to extreme third parties, and eventually with sufficient threatening interactions, “collisions result[ed]” in the Civil War. Although President Lincoln was a Republican opposing slavery, he wished to preserve America through uniting the Republican Union and Democratic Confederacy by declaring that as a president, he had “no disposition to introduce political and social equality between the white[s] and the black[s]…[as he was] in favor of…having the superior position” . The Northern abolitionists’ felt disconnected to their government since Lincoln, the face of the Republican Party distorted Northern beliefs to satisfy the South. Political parties compromised their ideologies to appease their opponents, causing political disorder and an eruption of war.
The Civil War was a time of fighting within the United States brought on by many events including the Missouri Compromise, abolition movement, presidential election of 1860, secession of Southern states, and other occurrences. Most Southern states seceded from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America. The big divide stemmed from the differing positions on slavery. The North had been gradually abolishing slavery and did not depend on such free labor in the way the South did. The agricultural dependant economy of the South relied on African American labor. Therefore, each side feared the stance the government would take on the issue of slavery and how that would affect the economy and politics of the nation. From 1861 to 1865, the
The outburst of the Civil War forever changed the future of the American nation. At first, it began as a fight to protect the Union, not as a struggle to free the slaves. Many citizens from the North and South felt that the conflict would ultimately decide both issues. Slavery was one of the primary issues which physically divided the northern U.S. from the Southern U.S. during the Civil War. Even after the Reconstruction Era it continue to divide the two. The Southern resistance to ending slavery was the main reason as to why the South believed in rejecting outsider ideals and it helped establish the Southern Code of Honor that emphasizes aggression and violence.
Slavery was a major reason for the Civil War, often referring the war as the
The issue of slavery was becoming more and more prominent in the years between 1820 and 1865, and was creating a lot of sectional tension between the North, who tended to hold abolitionist beliefs, and the South, who were generally pro-slavery. Many arguments were used to defend slavery, but many of these arguments ignored some crucial details. For instance, moral arguments against slavery tended to ignore the horrible conditions slaves were forced to live in; economic arguments ignored many viable solutions to their problem; and political arguments ignored blatant bias.
The north and the Abraham Lincoln argues that the main reason for the civil war was the slavery, whereas, the South and the confederate state reasoned that the main causes of the war is the state 's right and also southerners claimed that they are being treated unfair on the federal tariff and taxes. The southerners wanted to secede from the Union and preserve their right and the northerners wanted to keep the Union from breaking as well as they want to abolish slavery. The Civil War, or the "War between the states," was fought on both moral and economic grounds. On the most unique and modern war the world have ever seen, the north won the civil war because of their regional advantages, population advantages, the better strategic approach towards war and the support from the president.
The Civil War divided America in two groups the North and the South. From the Southern point of view, this war was a War of Rebellion or a War for Southern
One of the ways Southerners defended slavery was through legal means. Although the economic and religious aspects of slavery helped to directly support the moral argument of pro-slavery Southerners, the legal aspects of slavery served as visible victories and defending events in Southern philosophy. In 1831-1832, Virginia legislature debated and eventually defeated various emancipation proposals. This legislation was a turning point in the pro-slavery fight. An example of is is the Dred Scott Decision. An excellent example of the legal side to the Southern arguments and the Southern definition of popular sovereignty. With the Dred Scott Decision, the courts declared that the whole African American race had no legal standing as persons in courts also that all blacks were seen as property, and the Constitution protected property rights of the people, which includes slave owners. Moreover, pro-slavery Southerners
The Civil War, which split the United States, was a clash of two aspects of approaching the American Dream in a young America. Both sides felt their idea's and philosophies were far greater than those of the opposing side and therefore would benefit the nation more and make it superior. Both North