The American Civil War initiated directly from the northern and southern strained relations on the controversial matter of states’ right opposed to federal supremacy, slavery, and economic sectionalism. The Presidential Election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 engendered the secession of seven states forming the Confederate States of America, following of four states after emerging battle of the Civil War. Why was the election of Lincoln the catalyst that led to the United States secession? Republicans opposed the enlargement of slavery flowing throughout the territories, therefore restricting the practice of slavery. Southern states discerned on the depriving control of federal government eventually overpowering slavery to become prohibited. In …show more content…
“The Confederate States of America- Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union,” is the first primary source use in the reasoning of secession. “Confederate States of America- Inaugural Address of the Provisional Government,” is the second primary source employ alongside with “First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln” which is the third primary source. With the two Inaugural Addresses, they provide a correlation with each other in the justification of the secession. All three secondary sources are in the format of books accessed by the McAllen Public Library. “The Causes of the Civil War,” by Kenneth Stampp, “Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President’s War Power,” by James F. Simon, and “Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought on the Civil War,” by Douglas R. Egerton are secondary sources employ on causes, the election process, and the result of …show more content…
The book consists of topics dealing with the subjects of slave power, states’ rights, economic sectionalism, un/ethical aspects of slavery, and the conflict of cultures. Within the topics, documents such as “Lincoln’s Election a Menace to Slavery,” and “The Almighty Has His Own Purposes: Abraham Lincoln,” correlate to the election and the process of its impacting tension to the South. The documents involve previous issues that influence the election and allocate the distinction of two sections of the United States. “Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President’s War Powers,” focuses on the disagreement of slavery, secession, and Lincoln’s authority in government in the duration of the Civil War era. The advancing disagreements initiated the Dred Scott Court Case in 1857, where Chief Justice proclaimed that the Constitution did not permit black men any privilege or right that white men were entitled to. Referring to Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, Taney accepted the southern secession as legal and positively diplomatic in both sections of the nation. “Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought the Civil,” emphasizes the presidential election of 1860, consisted the rivalry running of the American politicians Stephen Douglas and
The secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860, by a vote of 169-0 was a response to the election of Abraham Lincoln of 1860. Lincoln perceived as an abolitionist wanted to contain slavery rather than ending it. The majority party above the Mason-Dixon line were Republicans and below were primarily Democrats and Republicans were viewed as abolitionists. The election of a Republican threatened the South’s status quo. The primary catalyst for secession was based on slavery. Different social cultures and political beliefs developed due to the South’s intimate and reliant relationship on slavery. Southern whites feared the end of slavery and this paranoia was shared among plantation slave owners and white Yeoman farmers. Southern whites felt that the North were threatening the supposed tranquility of the South. The South’s agrarian economy, honor, and independence were believed to be in danger. Slavery was intertwined with the South’s social, cultural, and economic makeup. As a result of slavery, the South developed a paternalistic culture and racial ideology of white supremacy. The perceived notion that the North was influencing it’s political and social beliefs on the South lead them to believe that secession was the only act of self-preservation. The growing differences between the South and North made it difficult to negotiate. This fear was exaggerated and accelerated the South’s eventual implosion. The South believed that without slavery it would self-destruct and
The controversy over slaves ultimately led to the secession. Abraham Lincoln thinks slavery is wrong and he wants to stop it from spreading. Earlier, he had warned that slavery could separate a nation. In the 1860 election Lincoln is elected, but southerners are worried he will end slavery forever. Southern states start to secede because they are worried. First South Carolina succeeds, then North, Texas, and then Florida too. They give themselves a new name called the Confederate States of America. (Wise...)
Tensions between the North and South had grown steadily since the anti slavery movement in 1830. Several compromises between the North and South regarding slavery had been passed such as the Nebraska-Kansas and the Missouri act; but this did little to relieve the strain. The election of President Lincoln in 1861 proved to be the boiling point for the South, and secession followed. This eventually sparked the civil war; which was viewed differently by the North and the South. The Northern goal was to keep the Union intact while the Southern goal was to separate from the Union. Southern leaders gave convincing arguments to justify secession. Exploring documents from South Carolina’s secession ordinance and a speech from the Georgia
The first major reason of the civil war stems from Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech. Lincoln gives warning to the growing rift between the North and the South, the Anti-Slavery and the Pro-Slavery groups, as evidence in ‘I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.’ Although the antagonism and eagerness of protecting the Union is not shown as prominently as future speeches, we can find a hint of caution in his tone. He goes on to support his claims through the hodgepodge of legislation that is the ‘Nebraska Doctrine’ and the legal crisis of the Dred Scott court case. He politely refers to this as ‘squabble’ and speak of the controversy and moral implication that they have caused. For his part, it is easy to see the insinuation of the speech- he believed slavery was immoral and was wholly incompatible with the principles of the Declaration of Independence embodied in the phrase
The constitutional developments started when the South tried to secede from the Union. The election of the anti-slavery Republican, Abraham Lincoln, as president in 1860 caused seven southern states to secede from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. Four more states tried seceding by using the 10th amendment, which declared “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states.” The secession of Southern states caused a Civil War, which was, by itself, not a revolution. The Civil War is considered “America’s bloodiest clash”, which started in 1861 and ended in 1865. The Union was pitted against the Confederate States and resulted in the death of more than 620,000, with millions more injured. The war was over issues including states’ rights versus federal authority, westward expansion, and slavery.
To begin with, immediately after the election and inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, the newly-established Republican Party’s presidential nominee, eleven states of the South seceded from the Union. These events marked the beginning of the Civil War and the war was a result of many political tensions that had emerged between the North and the South in the prior decades, all of which were associated with the institution of slavery installed in the Southern United States. President Lincoln began the Civil War with the South in response to states’ secession from the Union, and therefore, the war was not solely concentrated over the issue of slavery in American society. The North fought to preserve the Union while the Confederacy fought to
One of the key factor contributing to the Civil War was States Rights. This refers to the struggle between federal government and individual states over political power. One side argued for greater state’s rights and those arguing felt that the Federal Government needed to have more control over states. The states felt they should have the right to decide if they were willing to accept certain federal acts. Meaning that states had the right to rule federal acts unconstitutional. The federal government denied states this right. When nullification would not work and states felts that they were no longer respected, they moved towards secession from the Union. The southern people were viewed as democratic and depended slaves for the plantations, they were devoted to agriculture and shipped cotton up north and favored low tariffs.
The United States would be a lot different if there had been no Civil War where at least 200,000 African Americans lost their lives.They fought for their freedom. The scars of slavery wouldn't have existed, this country would be a lot different in shape. The U.S. has a history of natives, and racist against “indigenous” immigrants. Slavery played its part in the replacing indians. At around the same time African Americans were being abused in southern states. At least 100’s of people of the Mexicans were abused as well. White aliens also got abused and “discriminated” until they were “assimilated.” The African Americans had it harder then all of the other races, because of their color. Russia also had it hard on the African Americans, Just like the United States, just because of their skin
Confederates quickly shed their American identity and adopted a new Confederate nationalism. Confederate nationalism was based on several ideals, foremost among these being slavery. This mindset brought problems into the infrastructure of the new government. Since the Confederacy was newly founded, it had little funds to operate as a country so the rich southerners used their money to fund it with controlling interest. Since the south lacked industry, it heavy relied on the plantations as the main income for the country’s economy. They had to rely on the export of resources from the plantations to acquire funds, but since production relied on a lot of conditions it was not a stable source of income like the industrialized north. Since the government was founded on slavery there were a lot of countries that disagreed with the slave trade so the confederacy did not gain many allies that would help them in the shirt time that they were in control. With the Union government having contracts and business with most of the countries in this time, when Lincoln declared his inaugural address, that the secession was legally
The Civil War as one of the most infamous conflicts in American History. It was a war borne from clashing ideologies and beliefs, and divided the nation by North and South and brother against brother. The North believed in that a strong central government was the best way to govern the nation. They supported the Republican Party and wished to stop the spread of slavery to new states, and later in the war, the abolition of it in its entirety. The South believed in the rights of states to create their own laws and that the states should be more powerful than the central government.
The southern states wanted to secede from the union due to the fear that north would restrict and outlawed the slavery. With Lincoln presidency the south states started their separation of the union. Lincoln made it very clear to the southern states that secede from the nation was illegal during a recite of his oath in Washington D.C. It was until Lincoln became president that the south finally exploded and decided to secede. They knew Lincoln was in favor of the north and will try harder to free slaves from the south states. The south didn’t listen and stand up against the north and made their first moves and attack the Fort Sumter. Due to this event Lincoln send military forces to enter in war with South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas. This event marked the start of the Civil War; Lincoln mobilized his military forces to defend the U.S from confederates that were consider enemy. Therefore, due to the fact the southern were afraid that the north
The election of Lincoln in November 1860 was the final trigger for secession.[74] Efforts at compromise, including the "Corwin Amendment" and the "Crittenden Compromise", failed. Southern leaders feared that Lincoln would stop the expansion of slavery and put it on a course toward extinction. The slave states, which had already become a minority in the House of Representatives, were now facing a future as a perpetual minority in the Senate and Electoral College against an increasingly powerful North. Before Lincoln took office in March 1861, seven slave states had declared their secession and joined together to form the Confederacy.
p. 505). Although the nation before Abraham Lincoln’s presidential win was lawfully united, its mixture of slave states, non-slave states, and the new territories with undeclared laws on slavery was filled with tension.
In 1776, the Civil War began. Most believe war started over the moral issue of slavery, which was a huge conflict in society but in fact it started over the economic standpoint of slavery and political control. A key issue though, was states rights. The South wanted authority over the federal government so they could abolish federal laws that they didn’t support. Territorial expansion was another factor in the breakout of the Civil War. The South wanted slavery in the Western territories while the North was committed to being against slavery. While this was going on, a republican party was forming with members who were strongly against westward expansion of slavery, basically taking the North’s side. In 1860 when Abraham Lincoln took office, it was made clear to the South that slavery was not going to expand westward. Therefore, the seven states in the South seceded from the Union forming the Confederate States of America, leading to the start of the Civil War.
When Abraham Lincoln became president in 1860, seven southern states secede from the union and formed the confederate states of America