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Causes of civil war dbq
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The Civil War was fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America. And it would not likely have happened. If the federal government enabled states to do whatever they wished, and the Northern and the Southern states concluded that they didn't require each other. The North and the South had cemented into two unique societies with various necessities. One of the parts of the Constitution central to state powers, before the Civil War, was the Tenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1791. There were many reasons behind the civil war, yet the principle reasons were clashes amongst North and South states, Controversy over regions, and failure in compromises. The dispute between the Southern and Northern states did …show more content…
These differing beliefs on slavery and constitutional rights are the undeniable cause of the war. “In 1820, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise, which created Missouri as a slave state, and Maine as a free state”. (Divine 344-345) This compromise was done in order to preserve the balance of power between North and South. However, in “1854, the Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act”. (Divine 345) This was the later compromise which stipulated that the issue of slavery would be decided by the settlers of each territory, an idea known as popular sovereignty. The Act was passed in spite of the best efforts of Abraham Lincoln, who railed against it in his “Peoria Speech.” After the passage of the bill, violence increased between pro- and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas, in an event that signaled the battles of the Civil War. “According to the 1857 Supreme Court ruling in Dred Scott v. Sanford, Congress did not have the authority to prohibit slavery in the territories”, (Divine 345) That was the reason why Missouri Compromise was rendered unconstitutional. This ruling pleased Southern slaveholders, and angered their Northern …show more content…
(Annual Edition, Pg. 113) These differing beliefs on slavery and constitutional rights are the undeniable cause of the war. Northerners feared that the spread of slavery would discriminate against “Free” farming in the west. Southerners just as adamantly believed that the institution should be allowed to exist wherever it proved feasible. (Annual Edition, Pg. 113) The nation leaders had begun to debate on how to deal with slavery in the lands gained from the War with Mexico in 1848. The requested addition of new states increased feared and it balanced in the Congress between North and South. The discovery of gold in California brought thousands of people into that territory. There would soon be enough people in California for it to apply for statehood. Most Californians wanted California to be a free state, but this would gave more power to north. Southerners wanted to divide California in half, making the northern half a free state and the southern half a slave
This huge debate showed just how slavery divided the nation (Forbes VI). Differences between the views of the North and South led to a deeper divide, which in turn led to the Civil War. Most people knew the consequences of banning slavery, so they kept the Missouri Compromise in place. Overwhelmed with this issue, politicians dealt with the troubling issue carefully because it potentially could separate the Union, and everyone knew the South would not agree to the ban on slavery (Forbes IX). During this time, states entered the Union in pairs-one slave and one free. An equal number of slave and free states allowed the nation to stay together, but no one addressed the problems that eventually would arise due to more territory and an unequal number of slave and free states. Northerners defended the compromise and regarded it as a sacred document (Forbes VIII). Southerners later realized that they made a mistake by signing the compromise because more free states can be created than slave states. Congressmen from the South argued for the repeal of the compromise because they wanted slavery to extend across the country. Luckily, for the South, the Union gained more territory from the Mexican War. Mexico surrendered in 1848 and ceded multiple territories to the United States. Territories that Mexico ceded include California, New Mexico,
On April 12, 1861, Abraham Lincoln declared to the South that, the only reason that separate the country is the idea of slavery, if people could solve that problem then there will be no war. Was that the main reason that started the Civil war? or it was just a small goal that hides the real big reason to start the war behind it. Yet, until this day, people are still debating whether slavery is the main reason of the Civil war. However, there are a lot of facts that help to state the fact that slavery was the main reason of the war. These evidences can relate to many things in history, but they all connect to the idea of slavery.
In the spring 1861, years of building tensions between the northern states and southern states resulted in the American Civil War. In 1680 an anti-slavery Republican, Abraham Lincoln was elected president causing seven southern states to secede from the union. These seven states included--Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas--. These seven states formed the Confederate States of America. The American Civil War lasted from April 12, 1861 to May 9, 1865 and claimed more than roughly 620,000 lives. So what caused the Civil War? The three main causes of the Civil War were differences between the north and the south in economies, disagreements in abolishing slavery, and whether the State or Federal
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 lifestyles 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 we can see that with these differences a conflict would surely occur, but not many had predicted that a full-blown war would breakout.
In 1849 once again the Union was facing the same crises it had faced in 1820. California now wanted to be admitted as a free state. Once again Henry Clay came up with a compromise to resolve this conflict. California would indeed be admitted as free while the rest of the Southwest territories would decide the slavery issue by popular sovereignty. It would also abolish slavery altogether in Washington DC and initiate a stronger fugitive slave law to appease the South. This last concession angered people in the North however. Free blacks were concerned as now a Southerner could accuse any black person as being a runaway slave.
The new territories and the discussion of whether they would be admitted to the Union free or slave-holding stirred up animosity. The Compromise of 1850 which offered stricter fugitive slave laws, admitted California as a free state, allowed slavery in Washington D.C., and allowed new territories to choose whether they wanted to be slave-holding or free was supposed to help ease tension between the North and South. Yet Southern states wanted more new territories to be slave-holders so the institution of it would continue to grow. They believed slavery was a way of life and as Larrabee said in his senate speech, “You cannot break apart this organization and this system that has intertwined itself into every social and political fiber of that great people who inhabit one-half of the Union.” (“There is a Conflict of Races”).
The Republicans nominated Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant, he was a great soldier but no political experience.
The act effectively nullified the Missouri compromise of 1820, and gave the two new territories an opportunity to choose, through popular vote, whether they would permit or outlaw slavery. Southern slave holders viewed the act as a chance to spread slavery into the new territories and Northern free-staters saw a means to end it. Pro and anti-slavery advocates poured into the new territory of Kansas to help sway the vote in their favor. The stage was set for democracy to act, the people could choose, and they chose violence. Not a year after the act was signed Kansas turned bloody and the infamous “Bleeding Kansas” began. The issue of
The Civil War was a battle between the northern states and the southern states. The southern states wanted to secede
When victory in the Mexican War resulted in the US expanding its territory all the way to the Pacific Ocean, the question was now whether or not to permit slavery in the new territories. The debate over slavery increased , creating a bigger gap between the states who wanted slaves and the states that did not have slavery . the new Republican Party swept the 1859 elections in the North and the party’s candidate Abraham Lincoln, and accepted the problem of the expansion of slavery, Which caused north carolina and other states to secede causing the whole problem, leading to the civil war.
The United States of America has always disputed over the amount power the federal government had in regards to what the federal government could control through laws. Federalist and Anti-Federalist argued for years because they could not agree if the United States should or should not have a powerful central government (Kennedy). Even after those parties transformed into different parties, the continuous debate over the amount of power the federal government should have continued. The Civil War was fought over slavery and Southern States seceded from the nation to display dominance over the federal government and eradicate laws made by the federal government the South did not support, such as those regarding slavery (Causes of the Civil War).
Considered one of the most prevalent turning points in American history, the Civil War impacted every person in that era, and continues to do so today. While slavery is well-known to have been the principal cause of the war as a whole, multifarious reasonings were also responsible for the blood stain in history.
There are various explanations as to who and what really caused the Civil War. It is even fair to say that sometimes morals stand in the way when deciding who really started the war. Therefore, the facts must be analyzed clearly and in depth. It is true that the north played a major role in the Civil War, however, the south would not release their strict traditional beliefs of slavery. As time progressed, slavery debates pressured the South more and more to stand by their strict beliefs. Fugitive acts, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Secession all showed how the south used brutal methods to preserve slavery. Therefore, since the popular sovereignty doctrine, the pro-slavery souths’ strict use of slavery and decisions to secede from the nation, angered the north, leading to a civil war.
As the country began to grow and expand we continued to see disagreements between the North and South; the Missouri Territory applied for statehood the South wanted them admitted as a slave state and the North as a free state. Henry Clay eventually came up with the Missouri Compromise, making Missouri a slave state and making Maine it’s own state entering the union as a free state. After this compromise any state admitted to the union south of the 36° 30’ latitude would be a slave state and a state north of it would be free. The country was very much sectionalized during this time. Thomas Jefferson felt this was a threat to the Union. In 1821, he wrote, ”All, I fear, do not see the speck on our horizon which is to burst on us as a tornado, sooner or later. The line of division lately marked out between the different portions of our confederacy is such...
In the years leading up to the Civil War, there was great conflict throughout the United States. The North and South had come to a crossroads at which there was no turning back. The Secession Crisis is what ultimately led to the Civil War. The North and the South disagreed on slavery and what states would be free states. The South despised Lincoln's election and rose up in revolt by forming the Confederate States of America.