Texas Civil War Essay

This nullified the Missouri Compromise, which pleased the South since there was a possibility that slavery could expand. This intensified conflict between the North and the South and angered Democrats, Whigs, and Free-Soilers (Davidson pp 393). (http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/kansas-nebraska_act.htm) With the election of anti-slavery President Abraham Lincoln, the South became paranoid that the North planned to change their way of life, which led many of the Southern states to secede from the Union. (http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/civil-war-overview/statesrights.html) Lincoln wouldn’t tolerate secession and offered to “pardon” to the majority of Southerners with their return to the Union and conformity to the Emancipation Proclamation. Southern blacks were given educational and voting rights and opportunities for educational and economical advancement; the Southern elites then enforced the use of “paramilitary tactics”. Racism was also a factor in the North, which led Northerners to espouse some Southern viewpoint in regards to egalitarianism. This was the end of the Reconstruction Era and allowed the South to “turn the tables” on the North. Democrats were able to regain control of the Legislative and Judicial branches of government. (http://history.ncsu.edu/projects/cwnc/exhibits/show/second-redemption/redemption-1877)

The Texas population wanted to protect their state’s rights. They believe that the state can be loyal to the south. The south had to pay a great amount of cash to get imported goods from the Union. During this war state’s rights mostly focused on whether the federal government had to right to regulate or remove slavery from a state. Sectionalism was divided the country into two parts for example the north and the south. Document D says, “Tell him not to enlist till just before they go to draft him and only enlist for Texas service.” This is from John Rabb who was writing a letter for his son. In document b it says, “... were established exclusively by the white race for

This shows that the soldiers fighting in the war love Texas and don’t like it when they have to leave. A lot of Texans fighting had the mindset that they would beat the North because they could do it to Mexico. A lot of Texans weren't even fight for the South, they were fighting for Texas. Some didn’t even care if they had slaves they just wanted to fight for Texas with everyone

Way back when, the South had clashing opinions with the North. And like in most cases, the disagreement turned into a war. The US was divided into the North and South; one side strongly for slavery, and one strongly against. Everyone thought that they could live this way, divided, in harmony, but they were wrong. Southern states began to secede, and a month later war broke out. Why did Texans fight in the Civil War? The residents of Texas fought because they loved Texas, they wanted to have states’ rights, and they wanted to protect slavery.

At the time, the South wanted to expand slavery and spread farther than just the U.S. , or Manifest Destiny. But the North did not. The North did not support slavery at the time, which is why everyone in the U.S. other than the South was against westward expansion. When The U.S. annexed Texas, the industry and agriculture expanded just like the North and the South. Texas gave the U.S. more room to plant, live, and continue on with slavery.

The Constitution of 1876 is the constitution by which Texas lives by. Even after its 467 amendments, the Texas Constitution is still similar to the original document from 1876. The purpose of the constitution was because Texas wanted to have protection for various private interests. The people of Texas were motivated to limit the powers of state government and wanted to be sure they would avoid the abuse of government powers they once witnessed during the Reconstruction phase. The constitution has had some influences. Going back to when Texas was governed by Spain and then by Mexico, we still have sections in the constitution that deals with land titles and land law, debtor relief, judicial procedures, marital relations and adoptions, and water and mineral rights. Back in 1827, the constitution of the state of Coahuila y Tejas had provided a unicameral legislature but didn’t have a bill of rights. Texas at the time did not adopt the required Catholicism into their constitution, although they added to recognize slavery. In 1836 when Texas became independent it adopted the Republic Constitution of 1836. Texas then established a unitary form of government, freedom of religion, property rights protection, and legal recognition of slavery. When Texas became a state it reflected on traditionalistic southern culture. It

The status of the current Texas Constitution has been a growing source of controversy. Originally written to limit the power of government after Radical Reconstruction (Champagne 84), the 1876 Constitution has remained in effect despite Texas’ dramatic growth and development over the years. The document contains many explicit details that, unlike the U.S. Constitution, leave minimal room for flexibility in interpretation. At 86,936 words in length, the Texas Constitution has thus far required 467 amendments, the fourth highest number within the country (Champagne 91).

Texas has always been an individualistic state. Since the Alamo to the decision to leave the Union and stubbornly retain traditions, morals, and ideas to this day. After the Civil War, Texas went under radical reconstruction. This was a military rule in which Texas functioned under a military government that made a constitution that made the government more centralized, provided compulsory school attendance, and guaranteed a full range of rights for former slaves. By far, this constitution was a great stride forward in civil rights and made the government more efficient. However, white Southerners were extremely angered by this because of their racist attitudes and stubbornness. When reconstruction ended, white Texans quickly took back the

As soon as the North and South divided, Kentucky was undecided to which side it would support. Kentucky had its own division with a pro-union legislature and a pro-confederate governor. In May 1861, Kentucky’s governor Beriah Magoffin announced the Commonwealth as a neutral state. Neither side wanted to provoke Kentucky to gain it side, but both were fully aware of the potential of able young men to join their ranks, farmland that could provide food, and plentiful livestock. “Geographically, Kentucky touched all of the important rivers for the Union war effort: the Ohio, the Tennessee, the Mississippi, and the Cumberland. These watercourses offered good invasion and supply routes for United States (U.S.), while the Confederates could use them as effective obstacles to any Union advance. Lincoln summed up the state’s importance when he wrote “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game.” (The

The Texas Constitution has evolved in many ways throughout history. Before the current constitution there were five predecessors. There were many factors that effected each of the five constitutions. After very long governance by Spain and Mexico and a small war with Mexico, the Texans finally won their independence. The first constitution had become official in September of 1836. This first constitution was called the Republic Of Texas Constitution. After struggling for about nine years to become apart of the Union, Texas’s second constitution was created. The Second constitution was called the Statehood Constitution and was thought to be one of the best constitutions of time. The Jacksonian Democracy greatly influenced the Statehood Constitution. The idea of the Jacksonian Democracy was to increase the people’s participation in the government. This Constitution lasted about 16 years until Texas joined the Confederate Sates of America in 1861. This third constitution was called the Civil War Constitution. The main goal was to modify the

The Civil War was provoked for several reasons which included industry, slavery, and territorial disputes among the Northern states and Southern states of the newly established United States. The first recorded engagement of war between the North and South is documented to have taken place on April 12th, 1861 at The Battle of Fort Sumter. This was the starting point of a war that would claim over 600,000 American lives in a relatively short span of 4 years.

In 1836, the new Texas Constitution was written during the war for independence which had a separation of governmental powers, a bill of rights, a bicameral legislature. This had many adopted aspects from the Spanish and Mexican laws. In 1845, was modeled after other southern states and therefore referred to as the Statehood Constitution (Newell, 44). It embraced democratic principles and was influenced by Jacksonian democracy. In 1861, the Constitution was modified when Texas joined the Confederate States of America, this was called The Civil War Constitution. This is when Texas seceded to join the confederacy. In 1866, was on the losing side of the war and Texas was ordered by Andrew Jackson to revise the document. This new document abolished slavery and declared secession illegal. In 1869, reconstruction of the Constitution happened yet again because radical reconstructionists in Washington wanted southern states to write new constitutions with tougher standards. The present constitution the document was careful about what government could do and couldn’t do. This document has changed a bit and has had over 467 revisions but it is still the document that is used present day.

The battle at the Alamo is one of the most significant events in the Texas Revolution, as well as in both Mexican and American history. For Mexican President and General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, it was a tale of determination and holding to the principles of a strong, central government. For Americans living in Texas, the Alamo was a venture of small scale Revolutionary ideals; a people should be able to democratically express how they feel their homeland to be governed. As we know, both countries experienced the extreme opposites of their desired outcomes, if only initially. The tales of this specific point in time are many, though some certainly contain many varying details from the next. However, most can hardly be proven, as

They stopped further immigration into Texas from the U.S. They decided to free Negro slaves as Americans had brought many African American slaves. Slavery was illegal in Mexico, but the settlers brought slaves. Then Americans did not like this, so they did do something to Mexican government. They had a Texas revolution against Mexicans.

In 1861, the American Civil War commenced after many years of tension building between the Northern and Southern states. The main reason of the tension was said to be the debate of slavery between the North and South, and although some documents support this claim, it is false. The war had been brewing since 1607, before slavery was even introduced to the colonies that would become the United States of America. The debate of slavery did play a major part in the civil war; however it did so in supporting the true cause of the civil war. The main cause of the American Civil War was not the debate of slavery, but rather Europe’s role in the American economy.