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Civil War Dbq

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From Lincoln’s strong opinion about slavery to his actions leading to the war, Abraham Lincoln is the president most responsible for the Civil War. The Civil War was a battle over slavery and tariffs. While the North hoped to abolish slavery, the south wanted to continue it. The South knew Lincoln was against slavery, and he was the first president to strongly oppose the extension of slavery. After Lincoln was elected president, the South was outraged since they knew he was a threat to the economic and political interest of slavery. While Lincoln gave his famous “House Divided” speech, he enforced that slavery cannot continue any longer. He did not say he did not want slavery anymore; rather, he stated how he did not want to increase slavery in the US, but Lincoln’s speech mislead the south into believing, otherwise. …show more content…

Therefore, due to Lincoln’s misleading speech, it caused seven southern states to withdraw from the Union and to form the Confederate States of America. However, the other reason why the South withdrew from the North was because of the high tariffs; being a former member of the Whig, Lincoln was a strong advocate of high protective tariffs, which the South did not want to pay. In order to appeal the south to rejoin the union, Lincoln said, “Shall it be peace, or the sword.” In other words, this quote gives an impression that if the South does not rejoin the North, then a Civil War will break out, which it, eventually, did. Lincoln even indicated that the government would continue to collect duties and imposts from the South. In this case, Lincoln had many ways to prevent the Civil War; however, he did not. If the South rejoined the union, they were still forced to pay a ridiculous amount of tariffs in order to keep

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