Esder Chong
Mr. Gold
AP US HISTORY P8
Summer Assignment
8 September 2014 Along with his Gettysburg address Abraham Lincoln 's message in his House Divided speech is significant and consequential: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Soon after the Civil War ended the Union recognized the current issue of instability. If a solution is not effectively mandated, it is inevitable that America will never prosper. Only through bringing back the title “United States” will this country face a promising future. Now that the Civil War has concluded, the need to solve the post war destructive consequences is imperative. The Union cannot ignore the fact that the South is in a state of political turmoil, financial catastrophe, and communal disorder. As a result of fighting a total war, the mobilization of available production, the South faces an obvious uncertain future. The Union’s approach of the total war demolished numerous plantations, southern crops, and entire populations. Thousands are starving to death and those of whom remain survive in homeless situations with no home, land, or slaves. Though the objective of the Civil War was to deteriorate the Southerners, the Union must remember there is no profit or prosperity from South’s demise. Only through overcoming the task of Southern reconstruction will this country be able to thrive again. Primarily, the initiative to restore the Union must be taken. In order to assemble the country’s incomplete states, the Union must
With the eruption of the Civil War came one of the biggest tribulations and trials that this country has ever faced, but as we understand the motives of one of the greatest Presidents in American History we can see that the Civil War was inevitable. From his original intentions of merely preserving the Union and holding the country together, to permanently abolishing slavery we can observe why prevailing in the struggle of the Civil War is one of Lincoln’s defining legacies. Thus, as the civil war draws to a close, an old tumultuous era has ended, and a new more prosperous era has
The Civil War was a war that was fought over the civil and humane treatment of every person, regardless of their outward appearances. It left a scathing scar on the nation After the atrocities that were suffered in the Civil war, the nation need a way to heal it’s wounds and unite again. Lincoln had a battle of his own to fight within the congress for the Reconstruction of the nation, While Lincoln believed that the south had suffered enough and had a long road to recovery, the radical republicans wanted to punish the south. They believed that the act of secession by the southern states was treason and the penalties should be strict.
When the American Civil War began in the spring of 1861, those flocking to enlistment stations in states both north and south chiefly defined their cause as one of preservation. From Maine to Minnesota, young men joined up to preserve the Union. From Virginia to Texas, their future foes on the battlefield enlisted to preserve a social order, a social order at its core built on the institution of slavery and racial superiority . Secession had not been framed by prominent Southerners like Robert Toombs as a defensive measure to retain the fruits of the revolution against King George, a fight against those who sought to “intrique insurrection with all its nameless horrors.” (Toombs Speech) On January 1, 1863, when Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect the war became a revolution. The Union, the soldiers in blue fought to preserve could no longer exist. On every mile of soil, they would return to the Stars and Stripes from that moment on, the fabric of society would be irrevocably changed. In May of 1865, with the abolition of slavery engrained into the Constitution with the passage of the 13th Amendment, the Confederate armies of Lee and Johnston disbanded, and Lincoln dead of an assassin’s bullet; this change was the only certainty the torn fabric of the newly reunited states was left to be resown. Andrew Johnson and Southern Democrats believed the revolution of 1863 had gone far enough. Radical Republicans and African-Americans sought instead to bring it to
There had been many wonderful misunderstanding between North and South in the years that led up to the Civil War, but the most tragic misunderstanding of all was that neither side realized, until it was too late, that the other side was desperate. Not until the war had actually begun would men see that their rivals really meant to fight? By that time it was too late to do anything but go on fighting. Southerners had been talking secession for many years, and most people in the North had come to look on such talk as a counter in the game of politics.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand” (Abraham Lincoln). In other words, the United States, which was split into the North and South, could not stand with the uprising of conflict. The wise words of Abraham Lincoln foreshadowed the Civil War, which would become one of the worst wars in the United State’s history. Disagreement between the northern and southern states began long before the Civil War; in fact, as far back as colonial times. The North and South were not able to accept each other’s differences and come to a compromise, so they divided. During the early years of the republic, these differences between them grew greater as their distrust in each other intensified. Throughout the time period leading up to the Civil War, the
In 1861, a Civil War broke out between the Union States and Confederate States of America. Many influences led to this battle, but there were 3 main disagreements that initiated the Civil War. The debate in the North and South about slavery’s cruelty and ethicality was a primary cause of the war. Another main cause was the fairness of the decision of the state’s rights and the fairness of the rights that the states had. In addition to the other 2 controversies, the allowing and wanting for states to disjoin the Union was another cause.
Now, all that was left to do in order to bring unity to a once divided nation was to stitch up the wounds of the south’s secession, and peacefully bring them back into the union. Simple right? Yeah not so much.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”1 These words, spoken by Abraham Lincoln, foreshadowed the war that became the bloodiest in all of the United State's history. The Civil War was a brutal conflict between the North and South; brother against brother. With slavery as the root cause, Southern states had seceded from the Union and were fighting for their independence. They became the Confederate States of America (CSA) and were a force to be reckoned with. The Union, however, put up a fierce struggle to preserve the country. If the Civil War was to be a war of attrition, the North had the upper hand because of its large population, industrialization, raw materials, railroad mileage, and navy. But if the war was short lived, the
While he might have pointed a heavier finger towards the South, he reminded the audience that “all dreaded it, [and] all sought to avert it.” The country couldn’t be united if the population was constantly blaming each other. He emphasized that while the whole country might have been at fault, the cause was “localized in the southern part.” What started as a disagreement between two parts of a country turned into the bloodiest war fought in the young country’s history. “Neither party expected… the magnitude” of the war, and “neither anticipated that the cause” (which was slavery) would end “before the conflict… should cease.” Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation before the end of the Civil War, so the main cause of the war was essentially concluded before the war itself was concluded. So, in conclusion, he managed to unite the country even further by acknowledging that both the North and the South held part of the blame of the
Abraham Lincoln was a great impact to our nation and especially during the Civil War. He made the speech “House Divided” to tell all Americans to come together instead of fighting one another. He made this speech in 1858, before the Civil War began. “A house divided against itself cannot stand”, he says. In other words, Lincoln is trying to say that America cannot survive if we are not one, if we are divided, we cannot stand.
Four and a half months after the Union defeated the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. He gave the Union soldiers a new perspective on the war and a reason to fight in the Civil War. Before the address, the Civil War was based on states’ rights. Lincoln’s speech has the essence of America and the ideals that were instilled in the Declaration of Independence by the Founders. The sixteenth president of the United States was capable of using his speech to turn a war on states’ rights to a war on slavery and upholding the principles that America was founded upon. By turning the Civil War into a war about slavery he effortlessly ensured that no foreign country would
The Civil War was a period of racial injustice and a time of great loss for the people of America. During Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, he creates a moral framework for peace and reconciliation with the use of many rhetorical strategies. With a sincere but reflective tone, Abraham Lincoln highlights the reality of the troubled nation and the solution to all of the problems, which is unity. Lincoln repeats strong phrases to enhance the theme, references to a holy figure, and creates simple, yet structured ideas to achieve his purpose of reuniting the broken nation.
The Civil War was a war between the union, and confederate states in the United States that occurred from 1861-1865. Many people believed that the Civil War was about slavery and southern states right to defend their states’ rights. The confederates were fighting for their liberty and independence under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, who they felt was a tyrant. However, the union, was fighting to preserve their territory, that was created by their founding fathers from chaos and dismemberment. President Jefferson Davis believed that the civil war was based on the confederate rights to secede from the union. Jefferson also felt that Abraham Lincoln was to blamed for the start of the civil war, since he was against slavery. Lincoln’s intended goal was to preserve the union, he claimed slavery was not the reason. “If I could save the union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all slaves I would do it, and if I could slave it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that (Shi &Tindall, 2015, pg.465)”. Lincoln told everyone that if the southern states were to return to the union that slavery would still exist. However, many people believed that Lincoln wasn’t being truthful.
The Civil War left a country divided not only by property lines and borders but by beliefs as well. Not just religious beliefs, moral beliefs also. It left both sides, north and south struggling, trying to figure out what their next move towards reuniting the divided America was going to be. The period following the end of the Civil War would become known as the “Reconstruction Era.” An era that raised just as many questions as it did answers. A reconstruction of America that seems to carry on many decades later.
After attending the Press Conference on the crisis between the North and the South, I was most impressed with Abraham Lincoln’s ideas and least impressed with John C. Calhoun’s ideas.