The causes of the Civil War were complex and have been controversial since the country began. Some causes include; states’ rights, economics, and slavery. The most recognizable and popular cause is slavery. The freeing of the slaves was an important moral issue at the time and one of the greatest causes of the civil war. "It was only by carefully avoiding the moral issue involved in slavery that Northerners and Southerners could meet on any common ground." (Goldston, 79). The time came in which our great country would finally address the moral issue of slavery. Although there are many different causes to the American Civil War, the main cause was slavery because other causes are rooted in the issue of slavery. States rights were one of the major causes in the Civil War. The idea of state sovereignty was a controversial topic between republicans and democrats. The republicans withheld that the country was of the people, and the democrats believed America was comprised of individual sovereign states. The South interpreted the Declaration of Independence as an obligation to leave an oppressive government. "It is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government." The South believed that the North, by attempting to abolish slavery, was oppressing their rights to their own property. The Union, backed by President Abraham Lincoln, was trying to abolish slavery. The South found this to be oppressive and used their right to "throw off such Government" and, one by one,
Slavery makes people that are confident and people that think they can do anything, make them feel like they can't do anything and make them not confident.
One of the main causes of the Civil War was the argument over slavery. Though slavery was not the only reason why the civil war happened it is still considered as one of the main reason that led to the fighting between the North and South. Slavery was an important thing not only because of the cruel or religious reasons, but just from the fact that it’s
One of the key factor contributing to the Civil War was States Rights. This refers to the struggle between federal government and individual states over political power. One side argued for greater state’s rights and those arguing felt that the Federal Government needed to have more control over states. The states felt they should have the right to decide if they were willing to accept certain federal acts. Meaning that states had the right to rule federal acts unconstitutional. The federal government denied states this right. When nullification would not work and states felts that they were no longer respected, they moved towards secession from the Union. The southern people were viewed as democratic and depended slaves for the plantations, they were devoted to agriculture and shipped cotton up north and favored low tariffs.
Southern political leaders began thinking the north encouraged southern slaves to leave their homes. The south also believed the north was not keeping their word and had no reason for a compromise. A specific moment when southern political leaders were scared that the north was violating their rights was when they came together to discuss all of the things the north was doing to oppose them because of this they created the Declaration of Immediate. There they decided the only way to solve these differences was by going to war.
The disagreements for the north and south over the tariffs became the greatest battle between them, as slavery was only legal in the south. The north states was banned by the Mason- Dixonline, Secession has begun, this was a reason for slavery to begin. They started the war as soon as they could, in order to get there slaves in time for their businesses and factories. In 1860, when Lincoln was president, the constitution believed that every state had the right to leave the union. Lincoln did not agree, he did not believe that they have a right. “He opposed secession for these reasons: Physically the states cannot separate, secession is unlawful, a government
One of the last call that the opponents made before the civil war was the principle of popular sovereignty in which the people state that government exist to serve them and help them to move as a nation, over the U.S. history this sovereignty led to riots and fight between people from the same states which wanted to abolish slavery against the ones that wanted to keep
The southern states always believed that a strong federal government was a threat to local norms and laws as well as traditions. They believed that they should be able to move their property anywhere in the United States and not be taken away by the government. The people in the north believed in a strong federal government. Northerners believed that southerners should not have this right because it would violate the right of a free state to outlaw slavery within boundaries. The southern states believed that each state government should have more power, and should be able to make important decisions on its own. This issue emerged from the colonial days that took place with the debate of the population between the north and south over the U.S. Constitution. This submerged that the southern states, being less populated, were concerned that the highly populated northern states would use their influence to force their laws and traditions on the south through federal law influences. Basically, the south population believed that the states should have more control over their own destiny an infringement on their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness while northern side of the population believed the federal government should have more power to be able to address and deal with their own state level
The Civil War was caused by the economics of slavery and the political control of that system, specifically being states’ rights on the federal powers of the government, the territorial expansion of the united states that led to the division of the two sides, and the election of President Abraham Lincoln which was the final event that sent the nation to war.
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 Civil War is something almost everyone has a general idea about. It is more than a huge part of America’s history and is the central event in America 's historical consciousness. This war, unlike the American Revolution which created the first American states, determined what kind of nation it would be. Though there are many reasons for the cause of the American Civil War, one of the main reasons is the different attitudes the North and the South had toward slavery. In January of 1863, The Emancipation Proclamation was
Multiple events since the birth the Nation has led to sectionalism which led to the Civil War. The southern states had the right to secede from
After Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, politicians in the southern states wished to secede from the northern states. President Lincoln opposed slavery and hoped to get rid of this act in any state that practiced it. The southern states viewed Lincoln’s vision as a threat to those states who supported slavery and they believed that having an anti-slavery president would endanger the states in many ways. For this reason, South Carolina became the first to secede six weeks after Lincoln became president and later on more states to follow the secession (lecture). The states who seceded became known as the Confederate states and the conflict resulted in the civil war which lasted from 1861 to 1865 (lecture). The secession all falls back to the disagreement between the North and the South’s different views on slavery based on three different factors which were geographic positioning, economic power and man power.
The Civil War was caused by many reasons. The factors that were most responsible in causing the Civil War were the different views of the Constitution among the North and South, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the arrival of Lincoln as president. They caused immense destruction throughout the nation. If these factors were prevented, the United States could have been preserved and civil war could have never occurred.
The South wanted to free the slaves, however, they understood the “negative” political impacts. The North wanted to free the slaves, but they were very divided within themselves. Once ex-slaves gained the right to vote as a full human being (Black Suffrage), the Republican party arose to shape our country. (Roark, 471) With ex-slaves gaining the highly deserved power, the Ku Klux Klan (K.K.K.) was developing to support the democrats and restore “White Supremacy”. (Roark, 471) The political division raised what I would call a second Civil-War within the American government.
Slavery, as Abraham Lincoln often noted, was the root cause of the Civil War. Tensions over slavery dated back to the contradictory nature of the American Revolution of 1776 that resulted in a republic simultaneously committed to freedom for whites and bondage for blacks (Barney W., p. 61). Within years North and South reached the point at which compromise was not possible. At that time Civil War had been started.