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Causes of The Civil War

Some say simplistically that the Civil War was fought over slavery. Unfortunately, there is no "simple" reason. The causes of the war were a complex series of events, including slavery, that began long before the first shot was fired. Some of the reasons that will be detailed in the paper include.. Constitutional issues, tariffs and nullifications, economic changes, the breakdown of the political system, and finally slavery.

People argued about the meaning of the Constitution since the beginning. From a legal standpoint, the document is a contract between the people of the United States and the federal government, detailing the powers and responsibilities of each. In 1828 Vice-president John C. Calhoun said that if a state felt a federal law extended beyond the Constitutional rights of the government that state had the right nullify the law. This concept dated back to the Articles of Confederation. President Andrew Jackson felt the federal government was the highest authority and that the states had to abide by its law. This became a clear issue when during Jackson's term as president South Carolina threatened to secede when more tariffs were passed. The only thing that averted tragedy here was the fact that Henry Clay brought a compromise to that table that both sides accepted and were willing to live with. As you can see there clearly were tensions about the constitution even before the civil war had started.

The Panic of 1837 brought the entire factory and industrial economy of the US to a halt. The disparity between northern and southern economies was clearly seen in this crisis. Before and after the depression the economy of the South was very strong. Southern cotton totaled 57% of all American exports before the war. Many people in the north felt resentment for the fact that the south had been spared by this panic. The Panic of 1857 was another incident in which the north was devastated and the South was virtually untouched. The clash of a wealthy, agricultural South, and a poorer industrial North was intensified by abolitionists who were not afraid to strongly voice their opinions and hatred towards the south in government and media in the north.

The American federal government was ineffective with dealing with the issue of slavery. Every time the issue would arise in congress there would be heated debates, but nothing would come of them. It was not for lack of trying, both northern and southern politicians gave long heartfelt speeches in congress about the fairness or cruelness of slavery. As can be seen in the Lincoln - Douglas debates or the Dread Scott case. The congress never passed a firm slavery law. This could be seen with the fugitive slave act that required all northerners to help in the arrest and capture of escaped slaves, but the majority of northerners would not assist in the capture of fugitive slaves, and most would freely assist escaped Africans. There would be little to no enforcement of this law in the north, this just shows how this legislation had no power and was completely ineffective. The Missouri Compromise is another indication the federal government was not truly prepared to deal with this issue. Rather than make a ruling at that time whether slaver was right or wrong, and whether it was something that should be allowed in the Unites States they simply postponed the issue by drawing an imaginary line in the land and saying that above this line slavery was wrong, and below this line slavery was right. It is obvious to us all that what is morally wrong in Massachusetts is still morally wrong in Florida. The location does not change anything about what is right or wrong and that's what the federal government was trying to have us believe at this time.

Another major reason for the civil war was the election of 1860. Everything in this election was overshadowed by the issue of slavery which had been put off through compromises such as the Missouri compromise. The people needed something to be done, and something real to happen, not just another compromise that just avoided conflict for a period of time. This election year was the time for the people to show what they truly stood for and how they felt. The election came down to the Lincoln and Douglas. Many southern politicians such as Governor William Henry Gist of South Carolina had threatened to secede if Lincoln were elected, this is how strongly they felt on this issue. Also the fact that Lincoln had not won a majority of the popular vote, and had not even been put on the ballot in the south, but rather won through the electoral college made the south feel as if it was being cheated out of this election. After Lincoln's election many southern politicians followed through on their threats of secession. This was the spark that started off the civil war. Everything else before had just been dead kindling that was building up to fuel the fire that we know as the civil war.

In conclusion the civil war was not merely over the issue of slavery, there was a much greater cause behind it. It was the clash of cultures that developed between the north and south. This could be clearly seen by the industrialization of the north and the old traditional agriculture of the south. There were two drastically different areas trying to fight for power in a national government that was not willing to take a strong stand on the issue of slavery. Over all the freeing of the slaves was merely a by-product of the civil war, the true causes for the war were much different.

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