Shelden argues that, "Few scholars in the twenty-first century would call the Civil War 'needless,' as the emancipation of 4 million slaves hinged on Union victory. State Rights. John Vishneski (1988), "What the Court Decided in Scott v. Sandford", Gregory J. Wallance, "The Lawsuit That Started the Civil War. Students will analyze multiple sources to determine which of the causes of the Civil War each source best supports. To Free Soilers, the stereotype of the South was one of a diametrically opposite, static society in which the slave system maintained an entrenched anti-democratic aristocracy. Douglas' Freeport Doctrine, and the fact that he helped defeat the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution, made Douglas unpopular in the South, which led to the 1860 split of the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern wings. The fourth in this quartet is the theory of state sovereignty ("states' rights"),[95] also known as the "Calhoun doctrine" after the South Carolinian political theorist and statesman John C. [52] In his Cannibals All!, George Fitzhugh argued that the antagonism between labor and capital in a free society would result in "robber barons" and "pauper slavery", while in a slave society such antagonisms were avoided. Henry Wilson's History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America (18721877) is the foremost representative of this moral interpretation, which argued that Northerners had fought to preserve the union against the aggressive designs of "slave power". The South's concept of republicanism had not changed in three-quarters of a century; the North's had. This volume of primary documents on the causes of the Civil War presents the history of the American political order during its most tumultuous and challenging time. How does Sewards address compare to the arguments of Abraham Lincolns. A period of relative free trade followed 1846's Walker Tariff, which had been largely written by Southerners. But Democrats suffered a significant reverse in the electoral realignment of the mid-1850s. In the interest of maintaining unity, politicians had mostly moderated opposition to slavery, resulting in numerous compromises such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820 under the presidency of James Monroe. Outbreak of the Civil War (1861) The Civil War in Virginia (1862) After the Emancipation Proclamation (1863-4) Toward a Union Victory (1864-65) The Civil War in the United . Salmon P. Chase's "Appeal of the Independent Democrats" did much to arouse popular opinion. With the admission of Alabama as a slave state in 1819, the U.S. was equally divided with 11 slave states and 11 free states. After the American Revolution and the disestablishment of government-sponsored churches, the U.S. experienced the Second Great Awakening, a massive Protestant revival. [92] The Wilmot Proviso announced this position in 1846. [30], By 1828 South Carolina state politics increasingly organized around the tariff issue. And it might mean that the southern climate created both plantations and cotton, then slaves, and then war. On what ideas or principles does it rely? [172], Two competing explanations of the sectional tensions inflaming the nation emerged even before the war. The American Civil War was the culmination of the struggle between the advocates and opponents of slavery that dated from the founding of the United States. Many Northern Bible-readers and not a few in the South felt that slavery was evil. Another factor leading to secession and the formation of the Confederacy was the development of white Southern nationalism in the preceding decades. Strategy of the Civil War. The roots of this tragic conflict go back to the birth of the country. By the mid-19th century the United States had become a nation of two distinct regions. "Free labor, wage labor, and the slave power: Republicanism and the Republican party in the 1850s", in Melvyn Stokes and Stephen Conway (eds). in Donald, ed., Historiographic issues about the American Civil War, Gag rule Anti-slavery petitions in the United States Congress in 18311844, due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, 20-year protection of the Atlantic slave trade, Learn how and when to remove this template message, History of the Republican Party (United States), Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, History of The Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War, "Primary Sources: Slavery as the Cause of the Civil War", "Using Confederate Documents to Teach About Secession, Slavery, and the Origins of the Civil War", "Leah S. Glaser, "United States Expansion, 18001860", American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, "Soil Exhaustion as a Factor in the Agricultural History of Virginia and Maryland, 16061860", "John Calhoun, "Slavery a Positive Good", February 6, 1837", "Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison Admits of No Compromise with the Evil of Slavery", "Why Non-Slaveholding Southerners Fought", "Speech of Henry Benning to the Virginia Convention", "The Wealthy Activist Who Helped Turn "Bleeding Kansas" Free", First Lincoln Douglas Debate at Ottawa, Illinois August 21, 1858, The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics, "Diplomatic Failure: James Buchanan's Inaugural Address", Declarations of Causes of Seceding States, Alexander H. Stephens' Cornerstone Address, Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War, "The Confederacy was about preserving slavery. All this talk about the dissolution of the Union is humbugnothing but folly. A more pragmatic group of abolitionists, like Theodore Weld and Arthur Tappan, wanted immediate action, but that action might well be a program of gradual emancipation, with a long intermediate stage. How does Tallmadges approach to the legal status of slavery in the territories compare to the. It is sometimes argued that the House Divided Speech helped to bring on the Civil War; what justification could be given for Lincolns making such an inflammatory speech? Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Holmes (April 22, 1820) Compromise (October 16, 1854) As Northern papers initially ignored the story, Republican leaders lamented the lack of a popular response. His assassination of five pro-slavery settlers (the so-called "Pottawatomie massacre", during the night of May 24, 1856) resulted in some irregular, guerrilla-style strife. Thus they were committed to values that could not logically be reconciled."[8]. Abolitionists also attacked slavery as a threat to the freedom of white Americans. [175] In the first decades after the fighting, histories of the Civil War generally reflected the views of Northerners who had participated in the conflict. Rather than suppress anti-slavery petitions, however, the gag rules only served to offend Americans from Northern states, and dramatically increase the number of petitions. The American party system had been dominated by Whigs and Democrats for decades leading up to the Civil War. Compromise (October 16, 1854) State sovereignty, in other words, gave the laws of the slaveholding states extra-jurisdictional effect. What led to the outbreak of the bloodiest conflict in the history of North America? SenGupta, Gunja. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney's decision said that blacks were "so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect,"[139] and that slavery could spread into the territories even if the majority of people in the territories were anti-slavery. Finally, the characteristic posture of the conservative northeastern business community was far from antisouthern [sic]. They had been due to strike between 12 and 15 July after previously rejecting a 14.5% pay . Hence much of the nation concentrated on growth and prosperity. Revisionism gave Lincoln's Presidency a tragic beginning at Fort Sumter, a rancorous political setting of bitter factional conflicts between radicals and moderates within Lincoln's own party, and an even more tragic ending. Imports could not be banned for 20 years. In 1960, Lipset examined the secessionist vote in each Southern state in 186061. Indignant over the developments in Kansas, the Republicansthe first entirely sectional major party in U.S. historyentered their first presidential campaign with confidence. At the root of these cultural differences was the problem of slavery, but fundamental assumptions, tastes, and cultural aims of the regions were diverging in other ways as well. They somehow knew the Bible supported them in that feeling. Many elements of Civil War scholarship are still hotly debated. From out of the territories new states came into the Union, and with them the power either to protect or to destroy slavery forever by Constitutional amendment, depending on whether proslavery or antislavery forces dominated in the Congress and in the state legislatures. Does Calhouns understanding of the Declaration of Independence come closer to the ideas expressed by Chief Justice Roger Taney. Beard in the 1920s made a highly influential argument to the effect that these differences caused the war (rather than slavery or constitutional debates). [83] Moreover, Americans were informed by two well-established readings of the Constitution regarding human bondage: that the slave states had complete autonomy over the institution within their boundaries, and that the domestic slave tradetrade among the stateswas immune to federal interference. What exactly is the mud sill theory, and how has it manifested differently in the North compared to the South? Since iron, coal, and water power were mainly in the North, this tax plan was doomed to cause rancor in the South, where economies were agriculture-based. The North and South had reached positions on the issue of slavery that were both irreconcilable and unalterable. With the exception of South Carolina, whose convention election did not even offer the option of "no secession" but rather "no secession without the collaboration of other states", the Southern conventions were dominated by Unionists who voted down articles of secession. [60] Huston writes: Understanding the relations between wealth, slavery, and property rights in the South provides a powerful means of understanding southern political behavior leading to disunion. National triumphs and catastrophes were shared by both." How does Garrison view the potential splitting up of the Union between North and South over the slavery question? Voter turnouts even ran as high as 84% by 1860. The Fugitive Slave Law would reignite controversy over slavery. Evaluate the importance of these problems, how they affected the country and their overall impact as causes to the Civil War. Why does Garrison characterize the Constitution as an infamous bargain and an unholy alliance? Henry Clay, The Compromise of 1850 (January 29, 1850), Constitutional Arguments over Slavery Measures such as the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 had failed to settle the issue. Second, the property rights argument was the ultimate defense of slavery, and white southerners and the proslavery radicals knew it. De Bow of New Orleans established DeBow's Review in 1846, which quickly grew to become the leading Southern magazine, warning about the dangers of depending on the North economically. Both perspectives see essential aspects of the problem, but neither sees it whole. For example, in 1841 Adams represented the Amistad African slaves in the Supreme Court of the United States and argued that they should be set free. Causes of Civil War and More. First, slaves were property. Alongside a pay rise of 4.5% for 2022/23, this will give a total pay increase of 17.5% over two years. Amid the emergence of increasingly virulent and hostile sectional ideologies in national politics, the collapse of the old Second Party System in the 1850s hampered politicians' efforts to reach yet another compromise. What arguments does Lincoln give in defense of the perpetuity of the Union? The proof? Historian William C. Davis also mentioned inconsistencies in Southern states' rights arguments. White racism in the South was sustained by official systems of repression such as the slave codes and elaborate codes of speech, behavior, and social practices illustrating the subordination of blacks to whites. [79] With the conquest of northern Mexico, including California, in 1848, slaveholding interests looked forward to the institution flourishing in these lands as well. The Civil War was now underway. "The Coming of the War Between the States". Ramsdell, Charles W. "The Natural Limits of Slavery Expansion". [47] In many areas, small farmers depended on local planter elites for vital goods and services, including access to cotton gins, markets, feed and livestock, and even loans (since the banking system was not well developed in the antebellum South). However, conservatives were unable to bring about the resurrection of "Whiggery". The Missouri Compromise quieted the issue until its limitations on slavery were repealed by the KansasNebraska Act of 1854. [147][148], On May 19 Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner gave a long speech in the Senate entitled "The Crime Against Kansas", which condemned the Slave Power as the evil force behind the nation's troubles. Reconstruction (1865-1877), the turbulent era following the Civil War, was the effort to reintegrate Southern states from the Confederacy and 4 million newly-freed people into the United States. Freehling, p. 149. This volume of primary documents on the causes of the Civil War presents the history of the American political order during its most tumultuous and challenging time. Any chance that the South would industrialize was over. [78] Of the states carved out of these territories by 1845, all had entered the union as slave states: Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas, as well as the southern portions of Alabama and Mississippi. Why does Calhoun reject the principles of natural liberty and natural equality? "[77], There were many causes of the Civil War, but the religious conflict, almost unimaginable in modern America, cut very deep at the time. "[101], By 1860, these four doctrines comprised the major ideologies presented to the American public on the matters of slavery, the territories and the US Constitution.[102]. In other words, Congress could restrict human bondage, but never establish it. [citation needed]. What are the main points of difference between Webster and Hayne, especially on the question of the nature of the Union and the Constitution? Early phases of Civil War and Antietam. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Matthew Fontaine Maury (1861/1967), "Captain Maury's Letter on American Affairs: A Letter Addressed to Rear-Admiral Fitz Roy, of England", reprinted in Frank Friedel, ed., John Lothrop Motley (1861/1967), "The Causes of the American Civil War: A Paper Contributed to, Mark E. Neely, "The Lincoln Theme since Randall's Call: The Promises and Perils of Professionalism. While the compromise averted an immediate political crisis, it did not permanently resolve the issue of the Slave Power (the power of slaveholders to control the national government on the slavery issue). Daniel Webster and Robert Y. Hayne, Webster-Hayne Debates (January 1830) In 1860, the Democratic Party split into Northern and Southern factions as the result of a "bitter debate in the Senate between Jefferson Davis and Stephen Douglas". Smith, Stacey L. "Beyond North and South: Putting the West in the Civil War and Reconstruction", Towers, Frank. This issue was important in Pennsylvania and perhaps New Jersey. Fear of the "Slave Power" had a far greater appeal to Northern self-interest than did abolitionist arguments based on the plight of black slaves in the South.[11]. During the first wave of settlement, no one held titles to the land, and settlers rushed to occupy newly open land fit for cultivation. Sumner took years to recover; he became the martyr to the antislavery cause who said the episode proved the barbarism of slave society. [citation needed], Meanwhile, many Southerners grumbled over "radical" notions of giving land away to farmers that would "abolitionize" the area. Slavery. Wagner mercenaries had waged some of the bloodiest battles of the war but in the wake of last month's revolt, fighters were given the option of going into exile, joining Russia's regular forces or . "[48], With the outcry over developments in Kansas strong in the North, defenders of slaveryincreasingly committed to a way of life that abolitionists and their sympathizers considered obsolete or immoralarticulated a militant pro-slavery ideology that would lay the groundwork for secession upon the election of a Republican president. [citation needed], According to historian James M. McPherson, exceptionalism applied not to the South but to the North after the North ended slavery and launched an industrial revolution that led to urbanization, which in turn led to increased education, which led to various reform movements, especially abolitionism, gaining strength. [citation needed], Southern slaveholding interests now faced the prospects of a Republican president and the entry of new free states that would alter the nation's balance of power between the sections. The first would have barred slaves from being moved to Missouri, and the second would have freed all Missouri slaves born after admission to the Union at age 25. [citation needed], William Seward contemplated this potential in the 1840s, when the Democrats were the nation's majority party, usually controlling Congress, the presidency, and many state offices. "Partisans, New History, and Modernization: The Historiography of the Civil War's Causes, 18612011.". This had kept a sectional balance in the Senate but not in the House of Representatives, as free states outstripped slave states in numbers of eligible voters. Carl Sandburg (1954). Such dependency effectively deterred many white non-slaveholders from engaging in any political activity that was not in the interest of the large slaveholders. Stephen A. Douglas, Nebraska Territory (January 30, 1854) Today, most professional historians agree with Stephens that slavery and the status of African Americans were at the heart of the crisis that plunged the U.S. into a civil war from 1861 to 1865. While the tension and violence did emerge as a pattern pitting Yankee and Missourian settlers against each other, there is little evidence of any ideological divides on the questions of slavery. In what way(s) does Stephen Douglass speeches (. Free Soilers joined the Republican party in 1854, with their appeal to powerful demands in the North through a broader commitment to "free labor" principles. 1. 47. Controversy over the so-called Ostend Manifesto (which proposed the U.S. annexation of Cuba as a slave state) and the Fugitive Slave Act kept sectional tensions alive before the issue of slavery in the West could occupy the country's politics in the mid-to-late 1850s. This one-page timeline can be used to prompt a class discussion on the causes of the Civil War, or students can use it as a jumping . Prompting their break with the administration, the Douglasites saw this scheme as an attempt to pervert the principle of popular sovereignty on which the KansasNebraska Act was based. In New York, William H. Seward finally took it upon himself to organize a rally against the Nebraska bill, since none had arisen spontaneously. Nevertheless, the campaign of 1856 was waged almost exclusively on the slavery issuepitted as a struggle between democracy and aristocracyfocusing on the question of Kansas. New Southern demands to re-open the African slave trade further fueled sectional tensions. What is Lincoln willing to do in order to pacify the South? Stampp said that Stephens became one of the most ardent defenders of the Lost Cause mythology.[123]. [citation needed], Many Southern states held constitutional conventions in 1851 to consider the questions of nullification and secession. It was most important in the six southern states from Maryland to Georgia, but the total of a half million slaves were spread out through all of the colonies. Section 5 and 6 provide robustness tests. But most American historians point out the South was highly developed and on average about as prosperous as the North. What was Jeffersons reaction to the Missouri question, and why does he characterize it as a fire bell in the night?

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