McPherson said that "…many Civil War soldiers felt a profound and passionate commitment to the ideological purposes for which they fought." Almost near the end of the Civil War, Americans began to look for answers on why did the soldiers fought for. It is hard to separate individual causes of the war because the years preparing the way to the war were described by raising warfare over a set of economic and political disputes between the Northern and Southern states. Because the result of the war made dramatic changes to the southern way of living, it is simple to think that the main cause of the war was disagreement over slavery. Actually, disagreement between the North and South over states' rights and taxes was a more important cause of the Civil War than were differing views about slavery.
As President of the United States Abraham Lincoln not only played a major role during the civil war but also in the events preceding the war and his presidency. Lincoln was running for President in a country united by law but separated by political, social and economic differences. After winning office Abraham Lincoln had to deal with the issue of the Southern states seceding and also the outbreak of civil war. In conducting the civil war Lincoln had to successfully address an array of specific and inter-related issues if Union victory was to be attained. These include; marshalling the American economy to meet the tremendous war needs of several million soldiers, raising a citizen's army of volunteers willing to be trained and to die for the Union, adopting war strategies for the Union Army, handling foreign affairs, dealing with the problem of slavery without destroying the democratic freedoms upon which the nation was founded.
However, the states from the South could appreciate a number of measures that had been performed by Lincoln before, in which he demonstrated not to completely be in favor of slavery. Thus, the Southerners were afraid that, with Lincoln as the political head of the nation, slavery and all the abundance of interests involved with it would disappear, leading to the devastation of the basis of the Southern economies. By such point, the South states had already presented a number of discontentments towards the decisions that had been made regarding slavery. With the Dred Scott Decision, the Kansas Nebraska Act, or a number of other compromises such as those of 1820 and 1850, or even the Missouri Compromise, among many others, which presented the same purpose of trying to abolish slavery, the Southerners had a strong set of arguments to be presenting that attitude towards the Union
They never really wanted to become an independent state but to form an entirely new nation called the Confederacy. I'm sure Clay would have seen this as another country for the state to "hide behind". Senator Daniel Webster stated "I hear with pain and anguish the word 'secession,' especially when it falls from the lips of those who are emminnently [sic] patriotic, and known to the country, and known all over the world for their political services. Secession! Peaceable secession!
Although many people believe that the civil war was only about slavery that is not totally true. The civil war was about many factors and issues that divided the North from the South. The civil war was fought between slave states and free states. For this reason it makes it seem as though it was a slavery war. The civil war created many economic downfalls for both the Union and Confederacy.
Causes of the Civil War The Civil War is arguably the most famous of the wars in American history. This war did not just begin out of nowhere; there were many factors brewing amongst the nation that led both directly and indirectly to the Civil War. From 1790- 1860, there were numerous events that eventually built tensions so high, that the election of Abraham Lincoln as president alone was the direct cause of the war. However, the underlying causes of the Civil War explain the tensions going on between the northern states and the southern states. Most of the tension was about slavery and how the north disapproved of it and how the south refused to give up any sort of their labor force from the plantations.
Separating the North and the South from each other, due to tension on disagreements of beliefs about the slaves, simply North wanting slavery abolished and believed it was injustice to humans and on many levels incorrect treatment to humans, simply calling them ‘slaves’ was wrong and disgusting. Whereas, the South believed that slavery had many benefits, one being that it fuelled the economy. Due to the division, the Civil War was bound to happen due to civil unrest. It can be viewed now as a positive and negative event. Positive, that the ending result of the war was that the slaves were freed and human rights were considered.
Democrat Stephen A. Douglas Abraham Lincoln had won the election and the south was furious because they knew that Abe favored the North and wanted to abolish slavery so many of the states started to secede(Britannica Encyclopedia). So Abraham Lincoln knew that as much as he wanted to get rid of slavery he could not get rid of it completely it would make things worse and those south sates that took side with the union would of left so he had to please the north and the south so he did what he could do. All Abraham Lincoln wanted was for the confederate states to come back to the union to bring them back in so he promised that does states in rebellion in secession slavery would be banned from them if they did not return to the union many states did not listen because they had built their own government already. And did not want to lose their rights of having slaves because they dependent on them a lot for their plantations of cotton and without them they would lose their workers and money. The union was fighting for the freedom of slaves and to bring back the union to be united as one.
KAP History Causes of the Civil War. 01/14/13 Robert Allen People all have different reasons why they believe the civil war was started so I’m going to give the political, economical, and social reasons why I think it happened. Political reasons for the civil war. The first political reason for the civil war was that the southern states of the U.S.A wanted each state more sovereign than the federation, or confederacy. Another political reason was that the South wanted to protect their rights to own slaves.
Even northerners who were prejudiced against blacks were often against slavery, because they felt slavery caused unfair competition for free laborers; this argument figured prominently in “Free Soil” ideology. Free Soilers sought to prohibit slavery in the new territories, because it interfered with free labor. Northerners believed that they could work their way up in society by hard work and many did. The most violent confrontations between people who believed in free soil ideology and people who were pro slavery took place in the Kansas territory prior to the start of the Civil War. Kansas became known as Bleeding Kansas as a result of the