Civil War the War Economic and Social

Civil War

The War

Economic and social differences between the North and the South, states' rights verses federal rights, the fight between the proponents of slavery and abolitionists, and the election of Abraham Lincoln all contributed to the Civil War. However, all of these causes can trace their roots in the institution of slavery. The major reason the southern states succeed was to maintain slavery, the conflict over western lands was about slavery, Lincoln couldn't maintain the union because of slavery, and the production of cotton demanded slavery.

Ultimately, though both sides claimed to want to achieve their objectives peacefully, the South viewed the North as a threat to its way of life, while the North preferred war rather than let the nation perish.

Slavery

It seems incredible today that the institution of slavery was only abolished less than a century and a half ago. The idea that one person could own another is morally reprehensible. Yet, Southerners believed that abolitionists were attacking their way of life and that the Federal government was not doing enough to protect their property from running away. Southerners were also concerned that new states were entering the Union that did not permit citizens to own slaves, the more "free" states that entered the Union, the weaker Southerners' influence in the Federal government would become.

Secession

Despite my feeling on slavery I find it ironic that the North would did not let the Southern States leave the union peaceably, and endeavored to impose their will and beliefs upon them. The issue of slavery's abolition did not become germane to the conflict until Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863. Prior to this the sole reason the North fought was to preserve the union was political. The Emancipation Proclamation gave the North a moral purpose in the eyes of world for engaging the South, and it was only after it's issuance that the tide of the conflict shifted. It was soon thereafter, in the summer of 1863, that the fall of Vicksburg, coupled with the victory at Gettysburg gave the North the initiative.

Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln warned the South in his Inaugural Address: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.... You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it" ("Abraham Lincoln").

Lincoln believed secession illegal, and was willing to use force to defend Federal law and the Union. When Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender, Lincoln called on the states for 75,000 volunteers. Soon thereafter four more slave states joined the Confederacy; however four remained within the Union. Thus the Civil War began.