Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The American Civil war
Reasons for secession of south
The American Civil war
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The people of the Confederate States were people who did not agree with Lincoln’s beliefs and ideas. President Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I think Lincoln said this quote because he is trying to say that even though the United States became two nations, it will not be able to go against its
“The lack of… nationality, I believe, is one of the great evils of the times…” Senator John Sherman stated on February 10, 1863. The United States had been split into sections from the beginning, and it created a lack of unity and togetherness. In Document A, the reader can acquire from the reading that South Carolina (and later many other states) seceded from the Union because of states’ rights. Document A states that an amendment (specifically the
There were many important Compromises between the years of 1820 and 1860, some that worked completely and some that didn’t. In the early nineteenth century, people were good at compromising and making things work for everyone. How long did perfect compromising actually last? Slavery began to split the nation apart, causing compromising to become hard to do.
During his term in the House 1844-1846, his fiercely sectionalist and proslavery sentiments he even demanded the resumption of the slave trade branded him a Southern extremist. He planned to avoid any further involvement in politics, but the attempt of the Wilmot Proviso to exclude slavery from the newly acquired territories could not be ignored. That demanded that Congress protect slavery in the territories. During the 1850s, Yancey publicly expressed hope that secession could be avoided, but he had begun to conclude that secession was inevitable. After 1858, he was adamant that if the Republicans won the presidency in 1860, secession would be necessary.
He states how the act would destroy “the world’s only democracy” displaying the belief that Lincoln held, the secession of the Southern American states would heavily contradict the ideas of a fair and free democratic society. These actions of violence to prevent the pursuit of a courteous and autonomous
These 7 states met in Montgomery, Alabama, in February of 1861, nearly a month before Lincoln had even been inaugurated, and formed a completely separate nation from the United States of America, calling themselves the Confederate States of America (Intres, 2016m; Brinkley, 2005). Mimicking the governmental set-up of the United States, the Confederate States of America voted in Jefferson Davis as their president and a cabinet of advisors was appointed (Intres, 2016m; Brinkley, 2005). Politically, this divided the Democratic Party between the north and the south, leaving the Republican Party fully in control of the house and senate in the United States of America (Brinkley, 2005; Foner, 1995). Due to this, a variety of economic actions were taken which favored the north, speeding up its economic development (Brinkley, 2005). These Economic actions included the Homestead Act of 1852, the development of a new national bank, and an effort to properly finance the war by levying taxes, issuing paper currency, etcetera (Brinkley, 2005).
The American Civil War changed Americans and their ideals about freedom in many ways. Northern and Southern United states began to have simmering tensions for the states’ rights versus federal authority, plus westward expansion, and slavery had huge effects on the states. An election which made anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln the president of the United States of America in 1860, caused seven of the southern states to concede from the Union to make The Confederate States Of America soon after four more joined afterwards. It changed Americans in many ways as neighbors fought each other through the 4 gruesome years of the war. Conflict between the sides were like fights between brother and brother instead with many deaths.
‘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.”
During this time, the U.S. was split into two sections, the majority of the southern states had seceded from the United States, banding together as their own country known as the Confederate States of America who were fighting the war to keep slavery legal. The northern states maintaining their commitment to the United States were fighting the war to end slavery. The Transcontinental Railroad was going to open up the territories west of the the Missouri River and allow the creation of more free states. Fearing the loss of influence of slave states, the congressional representatives of the south opposed the railroad on financial grounds.
The secession of Texas from the Union was a decision that impacted every single life of the average Texan. There were many benefits, as well as challenges that came from this. A few days after Texas joined the Confederate States of America, Lincoln was inaugurated as president in March 4, 1861. After he was inaugurated, he and his cabinet took the position that the states, including Texas had no power to sever their connection with the Union in this way and that the authority of the United States government over them would be maintained. This meaning that no matter what the efforts of the Confederacy was, the United States still had power and control over them.
After the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the rise of the Republican party, Southerners feared the tipping of the balance of political power against them; their need for self-determination parallel the colonists’ belief of rebelling against the oppressive government of Great Britain. However, the Civil War represented something more: the clash of the feudalistic, agrarian South with the industrialized, capitalistic North. These two powers differed socially, politically, and economically, and were especially conflicted over slavery. These two sections of the United States were divided against one another, and could not survive this way. Therefore, it is more accurate to state that though the Civil War resembled some aspects of the American Revolution, it was a clash between two forces who could not exist with one another in their current state, leading inevitably to conflict between the
As tensions rose between slave states and free states, the American citizens knew that at some point, these tensions would grow too large to stay as a psychological and moral war. When Abraham Lincoln ran for president, he pledged to keep slavery out of the American colonies (Civil War Trust). However, when he won the election in 1860, seven states decided to secede, giving rise to controversy within the nation (Civil War Trust). The tensions were no longer mental, but it became physical. Lincoln and his administration refused to recognize the legitimacy of the states’ secessions, and the south had begun to create their own nation, the Confederacy (Civil War Trust).
Abraham’s political party, The Whigs, which he was a very devoted and proud member of: began to fall apart, therefore he needed a new political party. So he joined the new Republican Party which was formed in opposition of slavery, and the movement of slavery into other states and the new territories that were only beginning to develop. Shortly after Lincoln gave his famous speech “A House Divided,” “A house divided against itself cannot stand” (Lincoln). Shortly after Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the united states seven southern slave states seceded from the Union forming what was called the Confederate States of America or (CSA) for short. Lincoln had ordered supplies to be delivered to Fort Sumter on April 12th 1861, which became the start of the first and only American Civil War.
Due to the way the powers were divided before the Constitution, the U.S. fought a war because of tyranny and the fears of a powerful central government. However, soon enough, a civil war broke out between the states. The southern states had formed the confederate states due to their support for slavery. Many of the large populated states “exercised more power in Congress”, the states that kept slavery had the “three-fifths of their enslaved population for representation and taxation purposes” (“Federalism”). Without this compromise, it would have given the slave states more political