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Reconstruction after the end of the civil war
Slavery and the govenment
Reconstruction after the Civil War
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In this paper there has been a discussion of the legislation and the tensions preceding the southern Secession. Based on this discussing it can be concluded that the tensions, which culminated with the Civil War, were present many decades before the secession itself. Even threats of Civil war and secession were present much prior to this particular conflict. This paper has also concluded that the threat of Lincoln was real to the South, because of the Republican party’s very distinct foundation as an anti-slavery party. Slavery was a soft spot in the South because of the substantial value slaves had.
During Abraham Lincoln’s presidency at the start of the 1860, an issue that had divided the nation was slavery. Lincoln’s election to presidency as a republic was not received well by the Southern slave states, as they thought that as a republican he was out to abolish slavery. In an effort to calm southern states and keep them from seceding from the United States, he attempts to ease them with his First Inaugural Address. In his First Inaugural Address his key points are to clam southern leaders of slave states, keep the states from seceding, and make them at ease as he enters presidency.
Abraham Lincoln would lead the Republican Party even though he did not win the south over in the election. He promised that he would save the Union no matter what the cost. This disconnect in policy would later lay the basis for the Civil War, which started in 1861. He never envisioned a proclamation or ending slavery but he was ultimately committed to saving the Union from the succeeding south. Lincoln gave into the antislavery Republicans toward the end of the war and finally decided to make slavery the true basis of the war.
When the election took place, there were regional lines for voting and some states in the South didn’t even have Lincoln on the ballot! They did that because Lincoln, to them, was a threat to their beliefs that slavery was okay. So because it was along regions Lincoln won due to the larger amount of people past the line. All of the Southern leaders wanted to have a more powerful government that fit their wants and needs. They didn’t want the North to have an advantage, so they then wanted to secede.
Stephen Douglas, an advocate of popular sovereignty, and Abraham Lincoln, a Republican candidate, were both running to represent Illinois in the United States Senate. These two men met in a sequence of seven debates before they battled for office of presidency in the election of 1858. Slavery eventually became the main issue discussed repeatedly in each of the debates, due to the Mexican War adding new territories left to be assessed as free soil or not. During this time, the Compromise of 1850 was a temporary fix to the sectional issues for the states that made the decision to participate in the extension of slavery. However, the Missouri Compromise of 1854 brought the issue back up again.
We can state the obvious, that we are not all perfect, and we certainly say things we don’t mean. Was President Lincoln really a racist? There is documented text that could point evidence that leans in either direction. Things said in the heat of long debates and drawn out conversations that ran for hours, does not make such a monumental man a poor or hypocritical person. Looking at the Constitutional right that “All men are created equal” to the thought that things won’t change without action, and to a man with no moral obligation other than to share his personal option that slavery was wrong, we dive into President Lincoln.
The point of the party was to protest the new taxes, it was a very iconic event in American history which eventually led to the American revolution. Let us go back a little bit because the party was an extremely iconic event that made a lasting imprint on U.S. History. After a very long and costly war with France and England, King George and British Parliament needed to figure out a way to start recovering all the money lost, so what better than to tax the people to help raise money to pay off the massive debts. They chose to place this tax on tea sold in both England and its colonies. Their thoughts were that people would rather pay a tax than give up their daily tea.
Abraham Lincoln, Frederic Douglass, were one of the most appealing well-known speakers, people who did believe that slavery was morally wrong and devote their lives to fight for freedom. However, there are several differences between the view of the Constitution’s position differences between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Kansas-Nebraska Act indicated that the recognition of slavery should be determined by the decision of these residents (popular or squatter sovereignty). This act itself conflicted heavily with the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, which was essentially seen as the admittance of slavery anywhere in the country. This act made a political issue of confrontation between North and South.
Political parties definitely started much controversy in the states. In the late 1700's to the early 1800's the political parties started to evolve, Jefferson and Hamilton had different views on the constitution and how we should structure our government, this "battle" started to divide our nation by their beliefs, and opinions on the government. Even citizens started to get involved. This dates back to the turn of the 19th century and is still causing disruption in the government today.
Lincoln was on the side of the fence leaning towards lenient punishment against the defeated confederate side. He was under the impression that a more lenient punishment would lead to a quicker recovery of the Union as a whole, which was believed to be his main goal. There were radical members of the Republican party, led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles
‘Slavery was the root cause of secession’. ‘November 6 1860, Lincoln was elected president of America which resulted in panic emerging in the South’ . The election of Lincoln as president who was a Republican leader meant that ideologies, movements and values from the North would be implemented in the South which meant the abolition of slavery. Slavery was a huge characteristic of the South as the economy; politics; social status and psychological mind-sets were influenced by the process of slavery. The southern white population then derived the idea of secession which meant the South would gain independence from Northern aggression .
Constitution and altered it by explicitly protecting the institution of slavery. This peculiar institution was what made the Confederacy unique. Sectionalism over economic, social, political, and constitutional issues regarding slavery continued from Buchanan’s inauguration in 1857 until secession after Lincoln’s election in 1860. “The expansion of slavery into western territories provided the catalyst for the growing perceptions of northerners and southerners that they held different intentions of the republic’s future.” “In the South, loyalty to slavery and its required expansion became the hallmark of party politics as the region’s politicians—Whigs, Know-Nothing, and Democrat—competed to demonstrate their loyalty to southern rights.”
There were also anti-slavery movements starting in the North. In the South however, over a third of the Souths population were registered slaves. Slaves would often perform tasks that were extremely physical labor. Many were mistreated and lived in poor conditions. When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, seven southern states would leave the United States because of Lincoln’s different view of slavery continuing into the new western civilizations.
The Democrats endorsed the “popular sovereignty” approach to slavery expansion that was used in the Kansas-Nebraska act. Their platform stated that new territories should decide themselves whether to be slave or free by popular vote; however, anti-slavery northerners feared that this result in the expansion of slavery further westward, a major fear of the Republican party. The Republican
After the election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860, eleven Southern states seceded from the Union. People in the South made a living through a plantation economy, Southerners needed cash crops that were labor intensive, using slaves to work this economy. The Northern economy was very different than the Southern economy the Northern economy was an industrialized economy, unlike the Southern economy. Abolitionists wanted slavery to end and thought it was an immoral and incorrect way to treat other human beings. Many Southerners supported the secession of South Carolina, and many other states, from the Union because they would rather leave the Union now than be killed by the people who hated them and the people they owned.