The American Civil War Was An Internal Conflict Fought

According to Georgia’s declaration of causes of secession they felt that the “… power in the Federal Government have striven to deprive us of an equal enjoyment of the common Territories of the Republic....” The state of Mississippi stated, “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery … We follow their footsteps. We embrace the alternative of separation; … we resolve to maintain our rights with the full consciousness of the justice of our course, and the undoubting belief of our ability to maintain it.” Texas declaration of causes said that, “Texas abandoned her separate national existence and consented to become one of the Confederated States to promote her welfare, insure domestic tranquillity and secure more substantially the blessings of peace and liberty to her people.” Later on the remaining four southern states, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, joined the Confederates.

     The South seceded in part out of growing awareness of its minority in the nation. The Union held twenty-three states, including four border slave states, while the Confederacy had eleven. Ignoring

A Civil War is a battle between the same citizens in a country. The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the independence for the Confederacy or the survival of the Union. By the time Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1861, in the mist of 34 states, the constant disagreement caused seven Southern slave states to their independence from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy, generally known as the South, grew to include eleven states. The states that remained devoted to the US were known as the Union or the North. The number one question that is never completely understood about the Civil War is what caused the war. There were multiple events that led to the groundbreaking, bloody, and political war.

The American Civil War took place from 1861-1865 was an inevitable event in the American history. More than 640,000 people were killed and millions more were injured during this massive war. The civil war was between the northern and the southern states where its most leading cause was slavery. Along with that, economic, political and social ideologies caused the civil war. The northern states, also known as the union, were more successful and antislavery compare to the southern confederates states. The northern states were more populated, had more industries, and believed in the Declaration of Independence statement that “all men are

government's inability to prevent Indian attacks, slave-stealing raids, and other border-crossing acts of banditry. It accuses northern politicians and abolitionist of committing a variety of outrages upon Texans. The bulk of the document offers justifications for slavery and white supremacy, saying that remaining a part of the United States would jeopardize the security of the two. The declaration includes this extract praising slavery, in which the Union itself is referred to as the "confederacy".Following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, public opinion in the cotton states of the Lower South (South Carolina through Texas) swung in favor of secession. By February 1861, the other six states of the sub-region had separately passed ordinances of secession. However, events in Texas were delayed, largely due to the resistance of Southern Unionist governor, Sam Houston. Unlike the other "cotton states" chief executives, who took the initiative in secessionist efforts, Houston refused to call the Texas Legislature into special session to consider the question, relenting only when it became apparent citizens were prepared to act without

The secession of seven southern states. After Lincoln was elected southern states were furious. The reason why they were furious was that they never voted for him. They felt that their votes did not matter to them. Some states threatened to secede from the union. Secession was declared unconstitutional, but the states did not care. Lincoln argued that “The government was a union of people and not of states.”. He could of of helped the states or let the states go and let the United States look weak and apart. He picked the second choice, eleven states seceded, South Carolina was the first to go. The states were Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee,

The north supported the admission of California as a free state, the Compromise of 1860 stated that "California ought to be admitted into the Union without restrictions as to the inclusion or exclusion of slavery" (Doc.5). The north also had a strong Republican federal government, they were the main support for Abraham Lincoln in the Election of 1860 (Doc 8.). In effect of the election of 1860, the North had control of the House of Representatives, Senate, and Presidency. The south had a democratic government, after the election of 1860 the southerners did not know that a Republican president had won the campain. President Lincoln was not listed on the southerners voting ballots. After the Dred Scott decision and the election of 1860, sectionalism increased in the United States. In December 20, 1860, South Carolina secedes from the Union and four other states follow. By February 1861, these states begin to call themselves the Confederate States of America. They elect their own president named Jefferson Davis. When Lincoln comes to power in March 1861, he states that states can not secede from the Union, but people can. Meaning that people can give up their patriotism, but states can't because the first three words in the Constitution are "We the People". These series of events already created tension between the Union and Confederacy. Then the first battle

Democrats), John Breckinridge (S. Democrat), John Bell (Constitutional Union Party), Abraham Lincoln (Republicans). The election showed just how fragmented the nation had become. Lincoln won all the free states, Breckinridge won all slave states except four, Bell won Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, and Douglas won Missouri. This can seem in Document D, showing the popular votes earned by the candidates. Though it was a close race with popular votes, Lincoln managed to get enough electoral votes to win the election. This shocked many southerners, letting them believe they had no voice in the national government. So the South threatened to secede from the union. And just had Lincoln predicted ”I do expect it will cease to be divided” (Document c, From "Speech to the Republican Convention" by Abraham Lincoln, 1858). The first seceding states were South Carolina, and later six other states, forming the Confederate States of America. Along with leaving the Union, the seceding states took over federals property within their border. One of the property was Fort Sumter, which lead to the beginning of the Civil

Beauregard. Four more southern states–Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee–joined the Confederacy after Fort Sumter. Outskirt slave states like Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland did not withdraw, but rather there was much Confederate sensitivity among their nationals.

As a result, these states that seceded from the Union formed the Independent Confederate States of America in early 1861 (O'Brien 184). Besides, when the war broke out, four more states also seceded. These were Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Moreover, in 1st January 1863, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which required all slaves in the Confederacy to be free. However, the absconding slavery did not become practical in the States under the Union (O'Brien

Once the war started four more Southern sates joined the confederacy, they included “Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Secessionist governments were established in Missouri and Kentucky, two border states that officially remained in the Union, while the western counties of Virginia rejoined the North. The Confederacy 's capital was moved from Montgomery to Richmond, Virginia, in May 1861, and regular presidential and congressional elections were held in November.” #

They each tried to rack up enough electoral votes but failed to do so. As they predicted, Lincoln had the most electoral votes but not the majority for the popular vote. He got forty percent of the popular vote and received 180 electoral votes. Douglas came in third and he won 12 electoral votes which came from Missouri and three from New Jersey but second in popular votes. John C. Breckinridge came in second with 72 electoral votes but got third in popular votes. Finally, Bell came in third with 39 electoral votes but lost altogether in the popular vote with about 600,000 popular votes. The South primarily voted for Breckinridge while the North voted for Lincoln. This meant that the South wanted slavery to be legal in all states and territories because Breckinridge supported slavery in the territories. The North voted for Lincoln because he did not support slavery but, in the beginning of the campaign, he stated that he would not end slavery where it still existed which meant that he did not support slavery in the territories. Douglas was voted by Missouri which shows that they supported slavery but wanted to conserve the Union. States like Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee all voted for John Bell. The election of 1860 ended with the victory of Abraham Lincoln which would lead to the South’s secession soon

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.

Immediately after confirmation of the election of Abraham Lincoln as president, the legislature of South Carolina convened. In a unanimous vote on December 20, 1860, the state seceded from the Union. During the next two months ordinances of secession were adopted by the states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

South Carolina also accused the Northern states of instigating “a war [that would] be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States,” (South Carolina) through the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. In Georgia’s declaration of secession, the reasons for secession are cited as “numerous and serious causes of complaint” (Georgia) against the non-slave holding states that were centered on “the subject of African slavery” (Georgia). In Mississippi, the consensus in the same; Mississippi’s position in the issue “[was] thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery” (Mississippi) and goes to list many reasons pertaining to slavery for its secession, most notably 1) The North “has made combinations and formed associations to carry out its schemes of emancipation” (Mississippi), 2) “has nullified the Fugitive Slave Law in almost every free State in the Union” (Mississippi), and 3) “advocates negro equality” (Mississippi). For these as well as other reasons all pertaining to slavery, the Confederate States seceded from the Union. In the Southern States, as seen through the declarations of secession from the Confederate States, the people, along with the governments of those states all supported secession based on issues arising from the conflict over slavery.