Civil War Motives

440 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Abe lincoln and the cause of the civil war

The Civil War played a big role in the development of our nation and what it is today. This occurred during a time when the views and beliefs of the northern states differed greatly from the views and beliefs of those who settled in the South, thus creating a battle where people fought from 1861-1865, not only for their rights, but for the fate of our country. Still today, there’s some debate over how the war really started, though most believe slavery was the main issue. In my opinion, I believe that there were multiple motives for the start of the Civil War; and while slavery played a part in that, it was not the main cause. In this essay, I will be demonstrating how Lincoln’s election and Dred Scott Decision (both direct and indirect causes) …show more content…

The main purpose of the Civil War was to try and get the southern states to return to the Union. In Late 1860 to c. mid 1861, little by little, Southern States withdrew themselves from the Union because they didn’t believe in the beliefs that they started to have. Yet, roles like Dred Scott Decision along with Lincoln’s Election played a part in the southern succession. I believe that the election of Abraham Lincoln took a great part in the succession that caused the Civil War. The Southerners were afraid of this because Lincoln favored the Union and has said that he would try to “preserve it”. They believed that Lincoln would abolish slavery; which he was against slavery, but stated that he wouldn’t interfere with it. This was one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, of why the Southerners left the Union, thus causing a War between the Union and the Confederates. An indirect cause of the Civil War took place three to four years prior; The Dred Scott Decision. Dred Scott was an African-American soldier who sought for American citizenship. His case was taken to the Supreme Court who later stated that no person with African blood can become a U.S citizen and that they (slaves) were property. Congress did not have the power to ban slavery in the territory which surprised the North. This sparked some controversy between the northern and southern states over slavery. And also invalidated the Missouri Compromise which restricts slavery in certain

Show More
Related

  • Apostles of Disunion by Charles B. Dew

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    The election of President Abraham Lincoln became the catalyst for the events leading to the Civil War. Lincoln represented the Republican Party who believed that all men should be free and that it was wrong to maintain people as slaves, ...

    Read More

  • Slavery, The Constitutional, And The Origins Of The Civil War

    1066 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the years, many people have been taught that the reason the Civil War happened, was to abolish slavery all through the United States. Although that is true, there were more reasons why the Civil War occurred.Referencing will be done on different articles and writers to support the findings of the authors. The article “Slavery, the Constitutional, and the Origins of the Civil War” by Paul Finkelman, discusses about the North (union) and the South (confederacy) and the disagreement of the territories following the constitutional laws regarding slavery, the article explores both sides of the territories and their beliefs of how the situation of slavery should have been dealt with. The article “The Economic Origins of the Civil War” by Marc Egnal, discusses the North’s (union) and the South’s (confederacy) economic situation that could have pushed the two territories to engage in war with one another. Finally, the last article “Politics, Ideology, and the Origins of the American Civil War” by Eric Foner, focuses on the Norths (union) and Souths (confederacy) views on politics and ideas of how each territory is ran and how they have affected the North and the South. These historians supplied specific and different explanations that explained what exactly caused the United States to enter into a Civil War. With the information provided by the authors, the evidence will lead us to the answer of what caused the Civil War.

    Read More

  • Gettysburg Address versus Letter to His Son

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    Southern and Northern People had different ideas about the civil war. There were problems within their country and they wanted to fix them. They knew the country was created for the people and was run by the people. They wanted the nation to succeed, but one side wanted it to be free for all people no matter the race, while the southern wanted to keep slaves. With these complete opposites ideas of thinking the southern states decided their only option was to separate from the Union. They split and this left the country confused. Confused about what was in store for the nation they had grown to love. It was no longer clear what they future held for American and it would take a couple of years to get the country moving down the path that leads to the world we live in today.

    Read More

  • The Battle of Gettysburg as the Turning Point of the Civil War

    1599 Words  | 4 Pages

    The South was fighting against a government that they thought was treating them unfairly. They believed the Federal Government was overtaxing them, with tariffs and property taxes making their life styles even more expensive than they already had been. The North was fighting the Civil War for two reasons, first to keep the Nation unified, and second to abolish slavery. Abraham Lincoln, the commander and chief of the Union or Northern forces along with many other Northerners believed that slavery was not only completely wrong, but it was a great humiliation to America. Once can see that with these differences a conflict would surely occur, but not many had predicted that a full-blown war would breakout. One did and after three bloody and costly years for both sides we come to the date of July 1, 1863.

    Read More

  • Election of Lincoln and Civil War

    1277 Words  | 3 Pages

    In conclusion the election of Lincoln as president in 1860 caused a civil war because it was falsely perceived by the south that Lincoln would threaten the state’s constitutional right to slavery. This false idea was due to a rift between the northern and southern states in both an economic and ideological manner. That is the north was based on industry and generally was opposed to slavery. But the South was an agricultural society which ran on slavery and, due to Nat Turner’s Insurrection and John Brown’s stand at Harper’s Ferry, was fearful of the north’s involvement in the governing of states as well as being opposed to this on the basis of state’s rights. The election of Lincoln caused the south to succeed from the union causing civil war.

    Read More

  • The U.S. Constitution and Slavery

    408 Words  | 1 Pages

    Later on, after President Lincoln abolished slavery(the thirteen amendment in the constitution) the southern states decided to nullify his decision but the went against the constitution. Nullification is illegal. This action cause the bloodiest civil war in America. President Lincoln notice that the US government was not following what they were preaching. After the win in the civil war, the federal government had established themselves with a lot of power.

    Read More

  • The Road to the American Civil War

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    The majority of speculations regarding the causes of the American Civil War are in some relation to slavery. While slavery was a factor in the disagreements that led to the Civil War, it was not the solitary or primary cause. There were three other, larger causes that contributed more directly to the beginning of the secession of the southern states and, eventually, the start of the war. Those three causes included economic and social divergence amongst the North and South, state versus national rights, and the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dred Scott case. Each of these causes involved slavery in some way, but were not exclusively based upon slavery.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On The Confederate Flag

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Civil War was a battle between the northern states and the southern states. The southern states wanted to secede

    Read More

  • The Civil War Was Inevitable

    1367 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Civil War began on April 12, 1861 at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor when the Confederate army attacked Union soldiers and ended on May 9, 1865 with a Union Victory. There are many events, laws, and people that provoked the Civil War. The two most important causes are slavery and the expansion of the United States, causing an unbalance of free and slave states. This essay examines major events that initiated the war, starting from the Compromise of 1820 to the election of 1860, and proves how the Civil War was inevitable. After Thomas Jefferson, who served as president from 1801 to 1809, made the Louisiana Purchase on April 30, 1803, the U.S. gained 828 thousand square miles of territory from France.

    Read More

  • Causes of The American Civil War

    2128 Words  | 5 Pages

    Lasting from 1861 to 1865, the Civil War is considered the bloodiest war in American history. However, the Civil War had seemingly been a long time coming. There were many events that took place within the fifteen years leading up to the Civil War that foreshadowed the eventual secession of seven “cotton states” from the Union. The end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859, and the outcome of the Presidential Election of 1860 all helped contribute to southern secession and the start of the Civil War; they each caused conditions that either strengthened the abolitionist cause, strengthened the pro-slavery cause, or strengthened both causes respectively; although the conditions made many Southerners want to leave the United States, the Northerners were adamant on going to war to preserve the Union.

    Read More

  • Economic Causes To The Civil War

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    By the year of 1860, the North and the South was developed into extremely different sections. There was opposing social, economic, and political points of view, starting back into colonial periods, and it slowly drove the two regions farther in separate directions. The two sections tried to force its point of view on the nation as a whole. Even though negotiations had kept the Union together for many years, in 1860 the condition was unstable. The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln was observed by the South as a risk to slavery and many believe it initiated the war.

    Read More

  • Civil War: Inevitable or Avoidable

    1841 Words  | 4 Pages

    After thoroughly assessing past readings and additional research on the Civil War between the North and South, it was quite apparent that the war was inevitable. Opposed views on this would have probably argued that slavery was the only reason for the Civil War. Therefore suggesting it could have been avoided if a resolution was reached on the issue of slavery. Although there is accuracy in stating slavery led to the war, it wasn’t the only factor. Along with slavery, political issues with territorial expansion, there were also economic and social differences between North and South. These differences, being more than just one or two, gradually led to a war that was bound to happened one way or another.

    Read More

  • The Secession Crisis

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Secession of the United States was the cause of thr Civil War. The Southern Confederates were furious that the Northern Union for trying to abolish slavery. When Lincoln was elected president, he tried to once and for all abolish slavery in the North as well as the west. He tried to contain slavery to its geographical area to keep it from spreading anymore north, but the South erupted in rebellion and eventually went to war against the North in the Civil

    Read More

  • The Supreme Court Case that Fueled the Beginning of the Civil War

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the years leading to the Civil War, there were many events that sparked wide spread controversy and severely divided the nation. Dred Scott an African American slave whose owner brought him from a slave state to a state that outlawed slavery where he attempted to sue for his freedom. In the year 1854, a mere 6 years before the start of the war, the Supreme Court in Dred Scott v. Sandford handed down one of its most controversial rulings to date. Known as the Dred Scott Decision, the Supreme Court lead by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney issued a 7 to 2 decision, rendered that Africans whether they were free or slaves were not citizens and that they had no legality to sue in Federal court.

    Read More

  • Slavery as the Cause of the American Civil War

    1746 Words  | 4 Pages

    The American Civil War was the bloodiest military conflict in American history leaving over 500 thousand dead and over 300 thousand wounded (Roark 543-543). One might ask, what caused such internal tension within the most powerful nation in the world? During the nineteenth century, America was an infant nation, but toppling the entire world with its social, political, and economic innovations. In addition, immigrants were migrating from their native land to live the American dream (Roark 405-407). Meanwhile, hundreds of thousand African slaves were being traded in the domestic slave trade throughout the American south. Separated from their family, living in inhumane conditions, and working countless hours for days straight, the issue of slavery was the core of the Civil War (Roark 493-494). The North’s growing dissent for slavery and the South’s dependence on slavery is the reason why the Civil War was an inevitable conflict. Throughout this essay we will discuss the issue of slavery, states’ rights, American expansion into western territories, economic differences and its effect on the inevitable Civil War.

    Read More

More about Civil War Motives

Open Document