"War is cruelty.There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."These were words said by William Tecumseh Sherman. Unfortunately, the Civil War was very bloody, and it remained four years long. The uncompromising difference between the North and the South had steered them to have the bloodiest conflict in its history. This barely starts with the confusion of who was in charge of the army. It started when one side felt the need to become more powerful than the other side. Both sides obtained opposing views on the idea of slavery that caused many tensions between them. The Confederacy had slaves who were one-third of their population, while the Union had very little slaves and didn’t support the idea of slavery. This was one of the key reasons that led up to the start of the Civil War. Southerners viewed slavery as a necessity to their economy while the North believed it was wrong to own a human being. The North didn’t need slavery because their economy was stable. The South always thought slaves were better using than immigrants because they didn’t need to pay the slaves and they could get as many slaves as they wanted. They believed immigrants were underpaid and overworked. …show more content…
As he was elected president he faced Stephen Douglas. They were both from Illinois but had different opinions. Southerners saw Douglas as a traitor so they voted for Breckinridge instead. The division of the Democratic Party led Lincoln to become the first Republican to win the presidency. He was able to defeat the other three candidates: Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, and Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge. Lincoln only had 40% popular votes, but that didn’t stop him from winning. The South had threatened to secede from the beginning, but Lincoln becoming president pushed them to secede from the