Was Slavery The Only Cause Of The Civil War Essay

Was Slavery the Only Cause of the Civil War? A common misconception is that the Civil War was caused because of . The Civil War was initiated by the collapse of the Whig Party, slavery, and the 1860 president election of Abraham Lincoln. Although slavery was a factor, all of these principles were equally key factors in the role of why the Civil War had begun. A chief influence to the Civil War was the Whig Party. In 1834, those who were opposed to the rule of President Andrew Jackson and democrats established a new party called the Whigs. John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay joined forces against Andrew Jackson and formed a coalition. The name “Whigs” came from the word whiggamore, a Scottish word formerly used to designate individuals from western Scotland who opposed the rule of King

This coalition, later titled the National Republican party, strengthened after the election of Jackson in 1828 and was joined in by the Anti-Masonic party. After the death of Harrison, and succession of John Tyler, the Democratic candidate, James Polk, defeated the Whig candidate, Henry Clay, by thirty-eight thousand votes in an election. The Whig Party than elected Zachary Taylor in 1848 for the presidential election. This election was the start and primary reason the Whig Party collapsed. The disintegration of the party had already begun; several important Whigs joined the new Free-Soil party, along with the abolitionists. Zachary Taylor was a southern slaveholder who divided the Whigs into Northern and Southern factions. As the demand for slavery grew higher, Northern Whigs could not be slave- owners which increased tension. So, as a result, the Democratic Party nominated an Ohioan, Lewis Cass. The southern factions could not support the Northern in result, Zachary Taylor won the election but wasn’t able to save the decline of the Whig Party. The Whigs tried to run Winfield Scott in 1852. But, Scott lost to Franklin Pierce. The many losses in