preview

The Pros And Cons Of The American Civil War

Better Essays

The American Civil War, the bloodiest war in all of American history, was a conflict over the bitter issue of slavery. Although the moral controversy of slavery had been debated for some time, the underlying concern in the mid-1800s was the disagreement over different interpretations of the separation of powers in the Constitution. The South argued that the states were meant to have a considerable amount of self-sovereignty, therefore having the right in determining themselves if slavery was to be allowed. On the contrary, the North thought that the founding fathers aimed for a strong, collective union. The vagueness of slavery in the Constitution left much to be desired, as it addressed almost nothing about it. By the 1850s, slavery was rooted so much in the southern economy that it was feared plantations and the cotton industry would collapse if slaves were freed. The southern states seceding from the Union, and soon thereafter the Civil War, was a result of ¬the structural failures of the Constitution and a conflict over economical and territorial resources. One of the most heavily debated issues between the North and the South was over states’ rights. With the Constitution open to contrasting interpretations, people could read it from various perspectives in order to justify their beliefs. A good example of this was the differing ideologies of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in their debates for a seat in the Senate in 1858. Lincoln’s famous quote, “A house divided

Get Access