Causes of the Civil War

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CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR

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Bre Hammon

History of the United States

Jonathan Hammon

12/13/15

Causes of the Civil War

Without a doubt, the Civil War was clearly a debate between the Confederacy and the Union regarding the matter of slavery, however at which angle they were arguing is somewhat of a different story. It’s very easy to look at slavery in the United States and say that the abolishment of it was a strong moral decision, but after studying the war myself I have found that there are many different layers I had yet to account for. What were the political factors involved? The economic factors involved? Was it solely about slavery or to what degree was it the fact that the South was defending their state rights in opposition to the Federal government? I will not disregard the fact that perhaps ultimately it was a moral decision, and by no means am I discrediting all those who passionately fought for the movement from a moral standpoint, but in studying the subject I was surprised at just how much more there was to it besides the moral dilemma at hand in our country. I soon realized that agriculture, the freedom to venture west with slaves, and a strong political presence were all variables that helped accumulate the motivation for war.

Perhaps biggest factor that I had overlooked was the differences in the land and agriculture between the North and the South. While the South remained a predominantly agrarian economy, the North was quickly becoming more and more industrialized. Through this, different political and cultural structures began to grow throughout the two areas which affected much more than just the slavery topic, but also taxes, tariffs, and overall state rights versus federal rights as well.  The South felt threatened at the thought of abolishing slavery because their livelihoods primarily depended on it, while the North was slowing losing the need for the practice entirely. Another important concept to understand that held a lot of weight for the North’s decision I believe was the potato famine between the 1840s and 1850s. Because of this famine, immigrants from Ireland and German were rapidly making their way into the United States, leaving the North with a constant, ever ready group of individuals looking for wages at a cheap rate. The need for slavery in the North was no longer prevalent as it was in the South. It was almost as if two different land masses, separate in their ideology yet connected in borders, were coinciding on the same national territory. This created a tension.

Another major factor of the war was territorial expansion. The South hoped to take slavery into the western territories, but the North was committed to keeping the area restricted to white labor alone. At this time the Republican Party, who wished to stop the expansion of slavery into the western territories and to keep it white labor only was quickly beginning to gain prominence. So much so that in 1860 Abraham Lincoln, a republican president, was elected into the White House. In the beginning, he wasn’t completely forward in his attempt to disband slavery, he only said that he wished to disrupt the expansion but that he wouldn’t interfere where it is already taking place. His presidency was great triumph and it was one that happened without a single electoral vote from the South, only further indicting their loss of influence in the political system. I think they were starting to feel excluded, as if they no longer maintained a political presence. Naturally at the election of Abraham Lincoln, I’m sure they were beginning to feel threatened.