Causes of the American Civil War
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Angela Wise
Mr. Silverberg
College American History period 7/8
29 January 2010
Part 3: Essay #1 on Final
Every novel's beginning can sometimes foreshadow its climax; the same can be said for events in our nation's history. During the colonial period, certain aspects and cultures were developed that had created a significant difference between the Northern and Southern states of our country. The four major contributing factors that can be traced back as causes of our Civil War were; economic development, social differences, ways of viewing the world, and slavery and racial issues. From our beginning onward the differences among these issues had become more apparent, eventually leading to that warm July day in 1861, known as the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas Junction).
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, for example slaves. Therefore, the southern economy became a one crop economy, depending on cotton and consequently on slavery. Whereas, the northern economy was based more on industry than agriculture due to their natural ports, navigable rivers, and urbanization. In fact, the northern industries were purchasing the raw cotton and turning it into finished goods. This difference 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 On the other hand, the South continued to hold onto an outdated social order.
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Slavery in the United States first began in Virginia in 1619. By the end of the American Revolution, most northern states had abandoned the tradition while it continued to grow and flourish in the plantation economy of the South. In the years prior to the Civil War almost all sectional conflicts revolved around the slave issue. This began with the debates over the three-fifths compromise at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and continued with the Compromise of 1820, the Nullification Crisis, and the Compromise of 1850. Throughout the first half of the 19th century, Southern ...
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Slavery in the United States first began in Virginia in 1619. By the end of the American Revolution, most northern states had abandoned the tradition while it continued to grow and flourish in the plantation economy of the South. In the years prior to the Civil War almost all sectional conflicts revolved around the slave issue. This began with the debates over the three-fifths compromise at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and continued with the Compromise of 1820, the Nullification Crisis, and the Compromise of 1850. Throughout the first half of the 19th century, Southern politicians sought to defend slavery by retaining control of the federal government. While they benefited from most presidents being from the South, they were particularly concerned about retaining a balance of power within in the Senate. As new states were added to the Union, a series of compromises were arrived at to maintain an equal number of "free" and "slave" states. In 1820, Maine entered as a free state while Missouri joined as a slave state. The balance was finally disrupted in 1850, when Southerners permitted California to enter as a free state in exchange for laws strengthening slavery. This balance was further upset with the additions of free Minnesota (1858) and Oregon (1859). A part of the Compromise of 1850 called for slavery in the unorganized lands (largely Arizona & New Mexico) received from Mexico to be decided by popular sovereignty. This meant that the local people and their territorial legislatures would decide for themselves whether slavery would be permitted. Many thought that this decision had solved the issue until it was raised again in 1854 with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Proposed by Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, the Kansas-Nebraska Act essentially repealed the line imposed by the Missouri Compromise. Douglas, a devoted believer in working class democracy, felt that all the territories should be subject to popular sovereignty. Seen as a concession to the South, the act led to an entry of pro and anti slavery forces into Kansas. Operating from rival territorial capitals, the two sides had engaged in open violence for three years. Though pro-slavery forces from Missouri had openly and
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improperly influenced elections in the territory, President James Buchanan accepted their Lecompton Constitution, and offered it to Congress for statehood. This was turned down by Congress which ordered a new election. In 1859, the anti-slavery Wyandotte Constitution was accepted by Congress. The fighting in Kansas further heightened tensions between North and South.
The widening of the gap between slave and free states was symbolic of the changes occurring in each region. While the South was devoted to an agrarian plantation economy with a slow growth in population, the North had embraced industrialization, large urban areas, infrastructure growth, as well as was experiencing high birth rates and a large arrival of European immigrants. This boost in population ruined Southern efforts to maintain balance in the government as it meant the future addition of more free states and the election of a Northern, potentially anti-slavery, president. As the South recognized that control of the government was slipping away, it turned to a states' rights argument to protect slavery.
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
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government denied states this right. However, proponents such as John C. Calhoun fought passionately for nullification. When nullification would not work and states felt that they were no longer respected, they moved towards secession.
The tensions between North and South were mirrored in a growing split in the nation's political parties. Following the compromise of 1850 and the crisis in Kansas, the nation's two major parties, the Whigs and Democrats, began to fracture along regional lines. In the North, the Whigs largely blended into a new party: the Republicans. Formed in 1854, as an anti-slavery party, the Republicans offered a progressive vision for the future that included an emphasis on industrialization, education, and homesteading. Though their presidential candidate, John C. Frémont, was defeated in 1856, the party polled strongly in the North and showed that it was the Northern party of the future. In the South, the Republican Party was viewed as a troublesome element and one that could lead to conflict. With the division of the Democrats, there was much apprehension as the election 1860 approached. The lack of a candidate with national appeal signaled that change was coming. Representing the Republicans was Abraham Lincoln, while Stephen Douglas stood for the Northern Democrats. Their counterparts in the South nominated John C. Breckinridge. Looking to find a compromise, former Whigs in the border states created the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John C. Bell. Balloting unfolded along precise sectional lines as Lincoln won the North, Breckinridge won the South, and Bell won the border states. Douglas claimed Missouri and part of New Jersey. The North, with its growing population and increased electoral power had accomplished what the South had always feared: complete control of the government by the free states.
In response to Lincoln's victory, South Carolina opened a convention to discuss seceding from the Union. On December 24, 1860, it adopted a declaration of secession and left the Union. Through the "Secession Winter" of 1861, it was followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
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Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. As states departed, local forces took control of federal forts and installations without any resistance from the Buchanan Administration. The most eager act took place in Texas, where General David E. Twiggs surrendered one-quarter of the entire standing US Army without a shot fired. When Lincoln finally entered office on March 4, 1861, he inherited a collapsing nation.
Summarily, our beginning had indeed foreshadowed our climax, also known as the Civil War. The North and South had been consistently divided due to their differences economically, socially, and within their points of views subsequently leading to their downfall. Finally, differences, when not accepted or even not successfully addressed over time, often creates animosity which in turn ultimately causes war.
