tazzygirl
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It wasn't only slavery at issue. It's just the issue most people remember
I gave 5 reasons for the war... slavery, in part, was one. More accurately....
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The Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865 and led to over 618,000 casualties. Its causes can be traced back to tensions that formed early in the nation's history. Following are the top five causes that led to the "War Between the States."
1. Economic and social differences between the North and the South.
With Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton became very profitable. This machine was able to reduce the time it took to separate seeds from the cotton. However, at the same time the increase in the number of plantations willing to move from other crops to cotton meant the greater need for a large amount of cheap labor, i.e. slaves. Thus, the southern economy became a one crop economy, depending on cotton and therefore on slavery. On the other hand, the northern economy was based more on industry than agriculture. In fact, the northern industries were purchasing the raw cotton and turning it into finished goods. This disparity between the two set up a major difference in economic attitudes. The South was based on the plantation system while the North was focused on city life. This change in the North meant that society evolved as people of different cultures and classes had to work together. On the other hand, the South continued to hold onto an antiquated social order.
2. States versus federal rights.
Since the time of the Revolution, two camps emerged: those arguing for greater states rights and those arguing that the federal government needed to have more control. The first organized government in the US after the American Revolution was under the Articles of Confederation. The thirteen states formed a loose confederation with a very weak federal government. However, when problems arose, the weakness of this form of government caused the leaders of the time to come together at the Constitutional Convention and create, in secret, the US Constitution. Strong proponents of states rights like Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were not present at this meeting. Many felt that the new constitution ignored the rights of states to continue to act independently. They felt that the states should still have the right to decide if they were willing to accept certain federal acts. This resulted in the idea of nullification, whereby the states would have the right to rule federal acts unconstitutional. The federal government denied states this right. However, proponents such as John C. Calhoun fought vehemently for nullification. When nullification would not work and states felt that they were no longer respected, they moved towards secession.
3. The fight between Slave and Non-Slave State Proponents.
As America began to expand, first with the lands gained from the Louisiana Purchase and later with the Mexican War, the question of whether new states admitted to the union would be slave or free. The Missouri Compromise passed in 1820 made a rule that prohibited slavery in states from the former Louisiana Purchase the latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes north except in Missouri. During the Mexican War, conflict started about what would happen with the new territories that the US expected to gain upon victory. David Wilmot proposed the Wilmot Proviso in 1846 which would ban slavery in the new lands. However, this was shot down to much debate. The Compromise of 1850 was created by Henry Clay and others to deal with the balance between slave and free states, northern and southern interests. One of the provisions was the fugitive slave act that was discussed in number one above. Another issue that further increased tensions was the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. It created two new territories that would allow the states to use popular sovereignty to determine whether they would be free or slave. The real issue occurred in Kansas where proslavery Missourians began to pour into the state to help force it to be slave. They were called “Border Ruffians.” Problems came to a head in violence at Lawrence Kansas. The fighting that occurred caused it to be called “Bleeding Kansas.” The fight even erupted on the floor of the senate when antislavery proponent Charles Sumner was beat over the head by South Carolina’s Senator Preston Brooks.
4. Growth of the Abolition Movement.
Increasingly, the northerners became more polarized against slavery. Sympathies began to grow for abolitionists and against slavery and slaveholders. This occurred especially after some major events including: the publishing of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the Dred Scott Case, John Brown’s Raid, and the passage of the fugitive slave act that held individuals responsible for harboring fugitive slaves even if they were located in non-slave states.
5. The election of Abraham Lincoln.
Even though things were already coming to a head, when Lincoln was elected in 1860, South Carolina issued its “Declaration of the Causes of Secession.” They believed that Lincoln was anti-slavery and in favor of Northern interests. Before Lincoln was even president, seven states had seceded from the Union: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
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Lincoln and Secession
Very little held the United States together in 1860: the political parties had dissolved into sectional parties, and even churches had split over the slavery issue. People in the North simply couldn’t understand the South’s insistence on expanding the “slavocracy” westward, while southerners thought that northerners wanted to completely destroy their way of life. As a result, Americans on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line wondered and worried about who would become the next president in 1860.
Election of 1860
Four candidates contended for the presidency in the election of 1860:
•Abraham Lincoln ran on the Republican ticket in favor of higher protective tariffs and more internal improvements, with promises to maintain the Union at all costs.
•Stephen A. Douglas ran for the northern Democratic Party, also on a pro-Union platform.
•John C. Breckinridge ran as a southern Democrat in strong support of slavery.
•John Bell ran with a breakaway group of compromising Republicans on the Constitutional Union Party ticket.
Because none of the slave states even put Lincoln’s name on the ballot, the election eventually became two sectional elections, with Lincoln versus Douglas in the North and Breckinridge and Bell in the South. In the end, Lincoln won the presidency with approximately 39 percent of the popular vote, all eighteen free states, and a clear majority of 180 votes in the Electoral College.
Secession
Immediately after the election, South Carolina’s legislature convened a special convention and voted unanimously to secede from the Union. South Carolina then issued “A Declaration of the Causes of Secession,” which reviewed the threats against slavery and asserted that a sectional party had elected a president hostile to slavery. By February 1861, six other slave states had followed suit, including Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
The Crittenden Compromise
Hoping to prevent war, Senator John Crittenden from Kentucky proposed another compromise. He suggested adding an amendment to the Constitution to protect slavery in all territories South of 36˚ 30'. Popular sovereignty would determine whether the southwestern territories would enter the Union as free or slave states. Conversely, all territories north of 36˚ 30' would be free. Many southerners contemplated this Crittenden Compromise, but Lincoln rejected it out of the belief that the people had elected him to prevent the westward expansion of slavery.
Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address
In his First Inaugural Address, Lincoln reaffirmed the North’s friendship with the South, stressed national unity, and asked southerners to abandon secession. Moreover, he declared secession illegal and vowed to maintain the Union at all costs.
Fort Sumter
After declaring their independence, South Carolina authorities demanded the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Fort Sumter, a small island in Charleston Harbor. When Lincoln didn’t comply, South Carolina militiamen shelled the fort on April 12, 1861, until the garrison’s commander surrendered. Not a single soldier died during the fight, leading many southerners to conclude that northerners lacked the will to fight. The fall of Fort Sumter also convinced Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia to secede. The war had begun.
http://www.sparknotes.com/101/us_history_one/the_civil_war/lincoln_and_secession.html
This site, sparknotes....
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About Sparknotes
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Many people need to brush up on their history.
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