Essay On The Causes Of The Civil War

Cities grew and flourished and soon it was apparent that money was needed to support the exploding population. The North supported tariffs, unlike the South. Tariffs are taxes that are placed on imported goods by the government. The North supported any tariffs on imported goods for a few reasons insomuch they did not feel threatened. Industry was running rampant, so finished goods did not have to be brought over from England. There was no more need to import from England. If imports were brought in, they were more of a luxury than a necessity. All necessities were made on Northern soil by their own factories. Another reason that the North favored taxes was because they hoped that with higher import taxes, the South would then purchase goods from Northern factories instead of England. For instance, if the price of a finely woven, imported shirt plus the tariff caused the price to jump too high, Southerners would be forced to buy the shirt from a Northern factory. Railroads were being established mainly between all the major cities of the North. The network of these railroads meant that goods were able to travel faster. This considerably shortened the time from raw goods to finished products. The North’s transition to industry proved to be soundly lucrative. It evolved, expanded and laid a firm foundation for the future.

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.

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...)

Many causes led to the Civil War. This all happened around the mid 1800s. It was a conflict between the Northern and Southern states. Both sides had their own view on slavery, and their separate views caused contentions between the two. Both had different views on whether to expand or stop slavery growth to the West, or have slavery at all.

Although some historians feel that the Civil War was a result of political blunders and that the issue of slavery did not cause the conflict, they ignore the two main causes. The expansion of slavery, and its entrance into the political scene.

The point of the protective tariffs was that the Northern states would manufacture their own products to avoid benefitting foreign countries. This was a disadvantage for the South as they had no benefits from it. Polk had appointed his Secretary of the Treasure, Robert J. Walker, to lower the tariff rates of products to a standard rate, this was known as the Walker Tariff. It lowered the taxes on items that were a necessity, and increased for luxury items. The political effects of the Walker Tariff was political conflict between the North and the South. The North was against such a law because it provided less profit from the South. The South benefitted in a way that they did not have to pay too much on exports of foreign countries. This benefitted the United States economically because it encouraged the South to trade and export their extra crops to countries abroad. As a result, relations among America and Britain had improved because the Walker Tariff encouraged free trade between them. It also allowed Britain to import the grains produced in

Political tension between the North and the South started early when there was disagreement over Henry Clay’s American System. The American System imposed tariffs to support northern manufacturing, federally funded roads and canals, and supported the National Bank. Northerners were in support of the American System but the South wasn’t on board with the plan. This protective tariff was a tax on imports, and since the South was receiving most of the imported goods, they got the brunt of the tariff. The South believed it was unfair that it was putting money into the North’s industrial economy when the South was barely making enough revenue to support itself. While the South provided the Northern industries with most of the raw materials they needed, the price the North paid for these things were nothing compared to what the South had to pay for the manufactured goods the North produced. The opposition to the American System was so strong that South Carolina declared the tariffs void and threatened to leave the Union. But Andrew Jackson worked with South Carolina and the Union remained whole. This was the Nullification Crisis of 1832. The two regions clashed politically too. While the North became generally

Since the income tax, tariffs have not been a major source of revenue for the United States government. For this reason, they sold and generated controversies in the United States. However, there was a time in America’s history when tariffs generated enough controversy to almost insight a civil war. In the U.S. senate, in February 1832, Kentucky Senator Henry Clay gave a speech called “In defense of the American System.”

These two systems were created to import goods, supplies, and resource from one state to another. These were plans to improve and increase the economy of America. They wanted this plans to increase the revenue of the federal government. The south and north opposed to these laws because they did not like the idea of higher tariffs. Tariff means the taxes on foreign imported goods. They established higher tariffs since the south and north had factories and manufacture cotton. The south was very unhappy. The products they imported from Europe were more expensive. The north happy because they were making money from the tariff. The south felt like the north and congress cared so little about them. They did not care if south was unhappy and could care less if it was having a negative impact in the economy. However, Henry Clay argued that they should support it because the south, north, and west trade between them. They regardless have to pay the other counties more taxes when exporting products. This effect was causing a

1. Many Americans had disagreed on the subject of tariffs or a fee paid by merchants who imported goods out of country. In 1828 congress had passed a tariff that had placed a higher fee on imported goods from britain which had benefitted america because a lot of goods were imported from britain. Tariffs had split the nation in two one side being against and one side supporting it. Most Americans from the northwest had supported the tariff on britain because it had benefited them.

The funding for the internal improvements would be left for the states governments and therefore on the people. The southern part of the nation was not on board with all of the internal improvements as they did not need them and did not want to fund them either. Protective tariffs also caused problems in the country. It allowed factories to raise the price of their goods while still being protected by foreign competition. When the tariff rate increased, so did the prices of domestic good John Randolph addresses this issue in Document A. He tries to convince Congress that the tariffs are like a tax on the citizens, mainly southern farmers, in order to benefit the factories and factory workers in the north who made the goods. This is the first instance of sectionalism taking root in the country. The industrialized northeast is being focused on by the government. This could be due to the fact that population is most focused in that region as shown in Document F. Jefferson himself notices this and sees that this could be the death of the union. If the population is more prevalent in the northeast, that region will have more power in one chamber of Congress which means that they will be more focused on themselves and their own

many saw this as a required fee in order to assure the economy of the United States, the South saw in different way. This "protective tariff" wasn’t anymore than an extra, unneeded cost hurt that did more harm than recent good. All section of the United States voted for this Tariff in the House of Representatives, in exception of the South. (34 of the 57 representatives from the South voted up against the Tariff of 1816.) At this point of period, the South was flourishing from their cotton business and exporting cotton to different parts of the globe. By establishing this tariff, they would have to pay an extra payment to the federal government in order to import expensive goods from foreign countries, such as England and France. This increase

The Tariff of 1828 commonly known as the “tariff of abominations” decreased the Southerners economy drastically. The Southerners had to pay for raw materials allowing the Northeast to prosper, by eliminating them from foreign competition. Jackson and his Democratic - Republican Party were able to use this to their advantage by luring colonist against the economic aristocracy that was growing in the

The North’s actions of abolishing slavery and enacting tariffs caused the South to fight in hopes of preserving their way of life and economy. Plantations in the South were only successful because of slavery. Without the slaves helping them create the abundance of cotton, the South would have no economy. The country’s economy would be greatly altered if slavery was eliminated both from a consumer and producer perspective. When the North did announce that they wanted to completely eradicate slavery, the South was taken aback due to the fact that the whole country would not function without slavery and the cotton produced. The North wanted the South to industrialize but the South replied “… we must ever continue to be, wholly dependent upon agriculture and commerce (South Caroline Protest Against the Tariff of 1828).” The climate in the South did not allow for the same industrialization to occur as it did in the North. Plantations and their productions of cash crops were booming in the South and the northern frontier was too small of a market, therefore leading them to sell to foreign countries. This caused the North to enact tariffs and in order to prevent the South from being too successful and lose them as a market. The North ended up petrifying the Southerners into fighting a war in order to preserve their way of life and thriving economy.

The economical reason the south wanted to succeed from the nation was the addition to laws that only benefitted the northern states. In the south there was a plantation based economy, this means the economy was solely based on agriculture. In the south they would export there goods, mostly cotton, to other countries and the rest of the United States. In the north the economy was based on industry. This means they would use resources from other places, such as the south for cotton, and create products useable by the rest of the nation and other countries. In 1828 there was a tariff passed on imported goods. A tariff is a tax that is placed on goods from outside countries. This was passed to promote the buying of products in the U.S. In the south