The Civil War Essays (4040 words) - United States,

The Civil War The Civil War was the most convulsive and significant war in American history. After the Constitution was adopted by all of the States in 1789, uniting the States into one nation, differences between the States had been worked out through compromises. By 1861 these differences between the Northern States, which included the Western States, and the Southern States had become so great that compromise would no longer work. Therefore, a conflict started within our nation that was called the Civil War. Although causes of the Civil War have long time been debated by historians, there are many reasons that are agreed on. For more than thirty years arguments between the North and South had been growing. One of these controversies was about taxes paid on goods brought into this country from foreign countries. This kind of tax is called a tariff. In 1828 Northerners helped get the Tariff Act passed. It raised the prices of manufactured products from Europe, which were sold mainly in the South. The purpose of the law was to encourage the South to buy the North's products. It angered the Southern people to have to pay more for the goods they wanted from Europe or pay more to get goods from the North. Either way the Southern people were forced to pay more because of the efforts of Northern businessmen. Though most of tariff laws had been changed by the time of the Civil War, the Southern people still remembered how they were treated by the Northern people. In the years before the Civil War the political power in the Federal Government, centered in Washington D.C., was changing. The Northern and Mid-Western States were becoming more powerful as the populations increased. The Southern States were losing political power. Just as the original thirteen colonies fought for their independence, the Southern States felt a growing need for freedom from the central Federal authority in Washington D.C. They felt that each State should make its own laws. This issue was called State's Rights. Some Southern States wanted to break away from the United States of America and govern themselves. (The Civil War Homepage) Probably the most emotional issue of the cause of the Civil War was over the issue of slavery. Farming was the South's main industry and cotton was the primary farm product. Not having the use of machines, it took a great amount of human labor to pick cotton. The people in the South needed more people (slaves) to work the cotton for them that is why large number of slaves were used in the South. Many slaves were also used to provide labor for the various household chores that needed to be done. Many Northerners thought that owning slaves was wrong, for any reason. Thus, the disagreement. Some of those Northerners loudly disagreed with the South's laws and beliefs concerning slavery. Except slavery had been a part of the Southern way of life for well over 200 years and they didnt want to give it up without a fight. The Constitution of the United States guaranteed the right to own property and protected against anyone taking their property. To them a slave was property. The people of t he Southern States did not like the Northern people telling them that owning slaves was a great wrong. A person either believes that slavery is right or that slavery is wrong, so how can two people arguing over this issue come to a compromise? (The American Civil War). Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States in 1860. He vowed that he would keep the country united and the new western territories would be free from slavery. Many Southerners were afraid that he would not sympathetic to their way of life and would not treat them fairly. South Carolina was the first State to separate from the United States soon after the election of Abraham Lincoln. Six other Southern States quickly followed and also left. These States joined together and formed a new nation, which they named the Confederate States of America. They elected Jefferson Davis as their first president. On April 12, 1861 the Confederate States of America attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, which was held