Of greater importance than the civil strife in Kansas, however, was the reaction against it nationwide and in Congress. Students can explore Westward Expansion from 1790 to 1850 using an interactive map, teachers can create a document-based question for students to analyze dozens of Civil Rights documents, and classes can discuss political cartoons from every time period from the Colonial Period to Contemporary America. Brooks was lauded as a hero upholding Southern honor. ", James G. Randall, "The Blundering Generation. Nevins synthesized contending accounts emphasizing moral, cultural, social, ideological, political, and economic issues. Robert E. Lee (then a colonel in the U.S. Army) led a company of U.S. Marines in storming the armory on October 18. Kettell gathered an array of statistics in his book on Southern Wealth and Northern Profits, to show that the South produced vast wealth, while the North, with its dependence on raw materials, siphoned off the wealth of the South. "An Excess of Democracy: The Civil War and the Social Process", in David Donald, Pressly, Thomas J. Third, the weak point in the protection of slavery by property rights was the federal government. Finally, the characteristic posture of the conservative northeastern business community was far from antisouthern [sic]. Reconstruction - Civil War End, Changes & Act of 1867 | HISTORY Aside from John Brown's fervor, the strife in Kansas often involved only armed bands more interested in land claims or loot. Why does Garrison characterize the Constitution as an infamous bargain and an unholy alliance? Southerners thought they were merely demanding equality, in that they wanted Southern property in slaves to get the same (or more) protection as Northern forms of property. [40], Since the original gag was a resolution, not a standing House Rule, it had to be renewed every session, and the Adams' faction often gained the floor before the gag could be imposed. Richard Hofstadter, "The Tariff Issue on the Eve of the Civil War", Walter B. Shurden, and Lori Redwine Varnadoe, "The origins of the Southern Baptist Convention: A historiographical study. American Civil War | Causes & Effects | Britannica "Making Two Nations: The Origins of the Civil War". On May 16, 1860, he received the Republican nomination at their convention in Chicago. The central cause of the war was the dispute over whether slavery would be permitted to . [citation needed], The Lincoln-Douglas debates were a series of seven debates in 1858 between Stephen Douglas, United States senator from Illinois, and Abraham Lincoln, the Republican who sought to replace Douglas in the Senate. From these documents, the reader can come to understand and appreciate not only the history of the United States during the Civil War era, but also something about the challenges we have faced and the progress we have made as one people. If we are to remain one and dedicated to our defining propositionthat all are created equalevery generation of Americans must understand the time and the reasons why we almost ceased to be. [citation needed], Meanwhile, many Southerners grumbled over "radical" notions of giving land away to farmers that would "abolitionize" the area. Alongside a pay rise of 4.5% for 2022/23, this will give a total pay increase of 17.5% over two years. [135] Although his nomination upset some of their Nativist Know-Nothing supporters (his mother was a Catholic), the nomination of the famed explorer of the Far West and ex-senator from California with a short political record was an attempt to woo ex-Democrats. By 1854, stocks of iron were accumulating in each world market. [citation needed], From the early 1840s until the outbreak of the Civil War, the cost of slaves had been rising steadily. This was an error. [11][12] Southern defenders of slavery, for their part, increasingly came to contend that black people benefited from slavery. Compromise (October 16, 1854) The gag rule, supported by Northern and Southern Democrats as well as some Southern Whigs, was passed with a vote of 117 to 68. While an economic basis to the sectional crisis was popular among the "Progressive school" of historians from the 1910s to the 1940s, few professional historians now subscribe to this explanation. civil war - Civil war - Secession, Slavery, States' Rights: Political deprivation, such as colonial subordination or lack of political rights, provides another plausible motivation for resorting to violence. Part of the Compromise of 1850 was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 that required Northerners assist Southerners in reclaiming fugitive slaves, which many Northerners found to be extremely offensive. This volume of primary documents on the causes of the Civil War presents the history of the American political order during its most tumultuous and challenging time. But the Whig party's increasing internal divisions had made it a party of strange bedfellows by the 1850s. Shelden argues that, "Few scholars in the twenty-first century would call the Civil War 'needless,' as the emancipation of 4 million slaves hinged on Union victory. Furthermore, whites of varying social class, including poor whites and "plain folk" who worked outside or in the periphery of the market economy (and therefore lacked any real economic interest in the defense of slavery) might nonetheless be linked to elite planters through extensive kinship networks. [57] According to economic historian Lee A. Craig, "In fact, numerous studies by economic historians over the past several decades reveal that economic conflict was not an inherent condition of North-South relations during the antebellum era and did not cause the Civil War. [92] Congress, having created the territory, was barred, according to Douglas, from exercising any authority in domestic matters. Beard oversimplified the controversies relating to federal economic policy, for neither section unanimously supported or opposed measures such as the protective tariff, appropriations for internal improvements, or the creation of a national banking system. He stated that culture was not the cause of the war, but rather, slavery was: "For all the myths they would create to the contrary, the only significant and defining difference between them was slavery, where it existed and where it did not, for by 1804 it had virtually ceased to exist north of Maryland. William Lloyd Garrison, On the Constitution and the Union (December 29, 1832) Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? (July 5, 1852) 2003 speech, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, An entry from Alexander Stephens' diary, dated 1866, reflecting on the origins of the Civil War, The Arguments of the Constitutional Unionists in 185051, Shmoop US History: Causes of the Civil War, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Origins_of_the_American_Civil_War&oldid=1164763490, 26% in the 15 Slave states (AL, AR, DE, FL, GA, KY, LA, MD, MS, MO, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA), 16% in the 4 Border states (DE, KY, MD, MO), 31% in the 11 Confederate states (AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA), 37% in the first 7 Confederate states (AL, FL, GA, LA, MS, SC, TX), 25% in the second 4 Confederate states (AR, NC, TN, VA), Failed amendments to the Wilmot Proviso by. Both sides later claimed victory. What position does the Republican Party take in regard to secession and the possible breakup of the Union? What legal and constitutional arguments does Tallmadge make in defense of prohibiting slavery in the territories, and how might the Southern opposition at this time respond? [citation needed], Historians today generally agree that economic conflicts were not a major cause of the war. ", David W, Blight, "Was the Civil War Inevitable?". The war itself began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces bombarded Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. you are not my equal, and hence are to be excluded as carrying a moral taint with you.' The raid, trial, and execution were covered in great detail by the press, which sent reporters and sketch artists to the scene on the next train. Antislavery movements in the North gained momentum in the 1830s and 1840s, a period of rapid transformation of Northern society that inspired a social and political reformism. [98] Calhoun asserted that the federal government in the territories was only the agent of the several sovereign states, and hence incapable of forbidding the bringing into any territory of anything that was legal property in any state. We of the South contend that slavery is right, and that this is a confederate Republic of sovereign States. An abundance of new parties emerged 185456, including the Republicans, People's party men, Anti-Nebraskans, Fusionists, Know Nothings, Know-Somethings (anti-slavery nativists), Maine Lawites, Temperance men, Rum Democrats, Silver Gray Whigs, Hindus, Hard Shell Democrats, Soft Shells, Half Shells and Adopted Citizens. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Holmes (April 22, 1820) American Civil War | History, Summary, Dates, Causes, Map, Timeline Southern tradesmen often depended on the richest planters for steady work. "The Repressible Conflict", chapter 7 of. Soon after the Mexican War started and long before negotiation of the new US-Mexico border, the question of slavery in the territories to be acquired polarized the Northern and Southern United States in the most bitter sectional conflict up to this time, which lasted for a deadlock of four years during which the Second Party System broke up, Mormon pioneers settled Utah, the California Gold Rush settled California, and New Mexico under a federal military government turned back Texas's attempt to assert control over territory Texas claimed as far west as the Rio Grande. In New York, William H. Seward finally took it upon himself to organize a rally against the Nebraska bill, since none had arisen spontaneously. Etcheson, Nicole. [109], Eric Foner in Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War (1970) emphasized the importance of free labor ideology to Northern opponents of slavery, pointing out that the moral concerns of the abolitionists were not necessarily the dominant sentiments in the North. What does Calhoun mean, exactly, when he says that liberty is a reward or a prize to be won? The majority of the inhabitants were not concerned with sectional tensions or the issue of slavery. De Bow of New Orleans established DeBow's Review in 1846, which quickly grew to become the leading Southern magazine, warning about the dangers of depending on the North economically. The documents selected for inclusion in this volume range from a little-known 1819 Congressional speech by James Tallmadge Jr. on the future status of slavery in the territories (Speech to Congress (1819)) to Abraham Lincolns widely read First Inaugural Address (1861), in which he tried to prevent civil war as Southern states seceded. De Bow, the panic helped convince even more cotton barons that they had grown too reliant on Eastern financial interests. Douglas put Lincoln on the defensive by accusing him of being a Black Republican abolitionist, but Lincoln responded by asking Douglas to reconcile popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. The newly elected South Carolina legislature then quickly called for the election of delegates to a state convention. The first was the "Needless War" argument. Many of the reformers of the period, including abolitionists, attempted in one way or another to transform the lifestyle and work habits of labor, helping workers respond to the new demands of an industrializing, capitalistic society. The American Civil War is one of the most researched conflicts in modern history, yet many people still desire more knowledge about it. Harriet Beecher Stowe's best-selling novel Uncle Tom's Cabin greatly increased opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act. The Party began as a coalition of anti-slavery Conscience Whigs such as Zachariah Chandler and Free Soilers such as Salmon P. James Tallmadge Jr., Speech to Congress (February 15, 1819) [citation needed], Historian Allan Nevins, for instance, writes of political rallies in 1856 with turnouts of anywhere from twenty to fifty thousand men and women. What does Jefferson mean when he says that, in regard to slavery, we have the wolf by the ears, with justice on one side, and self-preservation on the other? Speeches and resolutions before Congress (Speech to Congress (1819); Missouri Compromise Act (1820); Webster-Hayne Debates (1830); Speech on Abolition Petitions (1837); Speech on the Oregon Bill (1848); The Compromise of 1850 (1850); Appeal of the Independent Democrats (1854); Nebraska Territory (1854); Mud Sill Speech (1858)); interpretations of executive power by Abraham Lincoln (First Inaugural Address (1861)); and arguments in the Dred Scott Supreme Court case (Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857); Reply to the Dred Scott Decision (1857)) addressed the use and abuse of the legitimate powers under the Constitution of the three branches of government. The House passed the Pinckney Resolutions on May 26, 1836. In "Podcasts". How does Douglas defend the principle of popular sovereignty? The Apostle Paul supported slavery, counseling obedience to earthly masters (Eph 6:59; Col 3:2225) as a duty in agreement with "the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching which accords with godliness" (1 Tim 6:3). [51], Latent sectional divisions suddenly activated derogatory sectional imagery which emerged into sectional ideologies. Slave owners controlled politics and the economy, although about 75% of white Southern families owned no slaves.[10]. J.D.B. Searching for Biblical passages endorsing slavery and forming economic, sociological, historical and scientific arguments, slavery went from being a "necessary evil" to a "positive good". This argument also helps explain why Colombia's civil war, fueled by coca profiteering, has dragged on for so many decades. Meanwhile, some abolitionists openly sought to prevent enforcement of the law. [99], "States' rights" was an ideology formulated and applied as a means of advancing slave state interests through federal authority. Evaluate the importance of these problems, how they affected the country and their overall impact as causes to the Civil War. [30], By 1828 South Carolina state politics increasingly organized around the tariff issue. By the end of the Revolutionary War, the New England states provided most of the American ships that were used in the foreign slave trade, while most of their customers were in Georgia and the Carolinas. Kansas voters, however, soundly rejected this constitution by a vote of 10,226 to 138. The South focused on slave and plantation life, while the North focused on city and industrial life. Causes of the Civil War. It was a conviction, a deep conviction that a separation from the Northwas the only thing that could prevent the abolition of slavery. More than a century and a half after the crisis came to an end, Americans remain fascinated by it, as they should be. The tradition of maintaining a balance between North and South was abandoned in favor of the addition of more free soil states. The benevolent Lincoln died at the moment when benevolence was most needed to blunt radical designs for revenge on the South. 7 Critical Civil War Battles | HISTORY As the long winter of 1861 turned into spring, that old flag meant something new. The American Civil War was fought between 1861 and 1865 over the issues of slavery and states' rights. As Northern papers initially ignored the story, Republican leaders lamented the lack of a popular response. James M. McPherson wrote in referring to the Progressive historians, the Vanderbilt agrarians, and revisionists writing in the 1940s, "While one or more of these interpretations remain popular among the Sons of Confederate Veterans and other Southern heritage groups, few historians now subscribe to them.". Ramsdell, Charles W. "The Natural Limits of Slavery Expansion". The Indochina wars (1946-75) and the Algerian War of Independence (1954 . A small antislavery movement, led by the Quakers, appeared in the 1780s, and by the late 1780s all of the states had banned the international slave trade. Compromise (October 16, 1854) Origins of the American Civil War - Wikipedia He found that in the 181 high-slavery counties, the vote was 72% for secession. Slavery as a Cause of the Civil War - NPS Far from needing ethnic grievances to perpetuate them, some civil wars . White racism in the South was sustained by official systems of repression such as the slave codes and elaborate codes of speech, behavior, and social practices illustrating the subordination of blacks to whites. [163] Pamphleteers North and South rarely mentioned the tariff,[164] and when some did, for instance, Matthew Fontaine Maury[165] and John Lothrop Motley,[166] they were generally writing for a foreign audience. To Free Soilers, the stereotype of the South was one of a diametrically opposite, static society in which the slave system maintained an entrenched anti-democratic aristocracy. The American party system had been dominated by Whigs and Democrats for decades leading up to the Civil War. He also saw slavery as essentially a benign institution, crumbling in the presence of 19th century tendencies. "The Immediate Cause of the Civil War," an introduction - Khan Academy For the first time American flags were mass-produced rather than individually stitched and even so, manufacturers could not keep up with demand. In areas where the radical Republicans controlled the new organization, the comprehensive radical program became the party policy. Thus, party nominees waged regional campaigns. [citation needed], Many Southern states held constitutional conventions in 1851 to consider the questions of nullification and secession. Nevertheless, it is significant to note that when it served anti-slavery purposes better to lapse into state rights dialectic, northern legislatures did not hesitate to be inconsistent.[112]. McDonald states: And then, as a by-product or offshoot of a war of conquest, slaverya subject that leading politicians had, with the exception of the gag rule controversy and Calhoun's occasional outbursts, scrupulously kept out of partisan debateerupted as the dominant issue in that arena. Thus, while the reform spirit of the period was expressed by a variety of movements with often-conflicting political goals, most reform movements shared a common feature in their emphasis on the Great Awakening principle of transforming the human personality through discipline, order, and restraint. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. In their famous debate in 1830, Senators Daniel Webster (Massachusetts) and Robert Y. Hayne (South Carolina) argued over two radically different understandings of the origin and nature of the American Union and the legality of secession (Webster-Hayne Debates (1830)). Alabamians were thus, he judged, prepared to believe the worst once Lincoln was elected.[55]. There had been a continuing contest between the states and the national government over the power of the latterand over the loyalty of the citizenryalmost since the founding of the republic. Lincoln was selected on the third ballot. But in the weeks after Major Anderson's surprising stand, it became something different. While the Revolution of 1776-1783 created the United States, the Civil War of 1861-1865 determined what kind of nation it would be. When that impulse is fueled by a fervent desire to find reconciliation and consensus, as was the case after the Civil War, the work of . [citation needed] No serious national political movement against slavery developed, largely due to the overriding concern over achieving national unity. In return, the South got a stronger fugitive slave law than the version mentioned in the US Constitution. [citation needed], As the schism in the Democratic party deepened, moderate Republicans argued that an alliance with anti-administration Democrats, especially Stephen Douglas, would be a key advantage in the 1860 elections. Why is it better to be a slave than a poor man, according to Calhoun? Childers, Christopher. A Union supply train races down a road during the First Battle of Bull Run . Early phases of Civil War and Antietam. On what ideas or principles does it rely? "[117], Until the 1860 election, the South's interests nationally were entrusted to the Democratic Party. The party supported former President Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis AdamsSr. for President and Vice President. First Bull Run. Upon what grounds does Hammond justify slavery? Upon what grounds does Davis justify separation from the American Union? The raiders were forced by the militia and other locals to barricade themselves in the Armory, in a sturdy building later known as John Brown's Fort. The Civil War is the defining event in American political development. Controversy over whether the territories would be slave or free raised the risk of a war between slave and free states and over Northern support for the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in the conquered territories, increased sectional tensions. How do Jeffersons views on slavery compare to others in this collection? Later that year, Congressman James Tallmadge Jr. of New York initiated an uproar in the South when he proposed two amendments to a bill admitting Missouri to the Union as a free state. The Fugitive Slave Law would reignite controversy over slavery. What role has slavery played in the determination of that decision, and what does the election of Abraham Lincoln mean to the South? A more pragmatic group of abolitionists, like Theodore Weld and Arthur Tappan, wanted immediate action, but that action might well be a program of gradual emancipation, with a long intermediate stage. Instead, the tension in Kansas began as a contention between rival claimants. Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on the Constitution and Union (January 1861), Party Platforms Some Southerners feared that eventually the North would grow so big that it would control Congress and could raise the tariff at will. The Civil War is the central event in America's historical consciousness. The LincolnDouglas debates of 1858 drew national attention to the issue of slavery expansion. As early as 1830, in the midst of the crisis, Calhoun identified the right to own slavesthe foundation of the plantation agricultural systemas the chief southern minority right being threatened: I consider the tariff act as the occasion, rather than the real cause of the present unhappy state of things. At various points in their careers, Richard Hofstadter, "The Tariff Issue on the Eve of the Civil War. How does Tallmadge understand slavery and what are his views on the possibility of a sectional crisis, or even a civil war, regarding the status of slavery in the territories? Policing and punishing blacks who transgressed the regimentation of slave society was a valued community service in the South, where the fear of free blacks threatening law and order figured heavily in the public discourse of the period. [50], The South reacted with an elaborate intellectual defense of slavery. Hence, I cannot but regard oppression in every formand most of all, that which turns a man into a thingwith indignation and abhorrence.[107]. The war appeared to be a stark moral conflict in which the South was to blame, a conflict that arose as a result of the designs of slave power. Charles I became King of England in 1625. Second, the property rights argument was the ultimate defense of slavery, and white southerners and the proslavery radicals knew it. Between 1861 and 1865 10,000 battles and engagements were fought across the continent, from Vermont to the New Mexico Territory, and beyond. It was fought between the Union [e] ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states that had seceded. In Bostona city from which it was boasted that no fugitive had ever been returnedTheodore Parker and other members of the city's elite helped form mobs to prevent enforcement of the law as early as April 1851. In 186061, most business interests in the Northeast opposed war. Racial discrimination was completely legal. [178][179], But it is possible that the politicians of the 1850s were not inept. On October 16, 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown led an attempt to start an armed slave revolt by seizing the U.S. Army arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). Explanations for the question have been offered, debated, and reinterpreted ever since the time of the war; indeed, even before 1860 some individuals were setting forth reasons why an "irrepressible conflict" must come. [citation needed], Southern slaveholding interests now faced the prospects of a Republican president and the entry of new free states that would alter the nation's balance of power between the sections. Even in the South, ex-Whigs and border state Know-Nothingsmost notably John Bell and John J. Crittenden (key figures in the event of sectional controversies)urged the Republicans to oppose the administration's moves and take up the demand that the territories be given the power to accept or reject slavery. Many Northern Bible-readers and not a few in the South felt that slavery was evil. Many conflicts after 1945 first emerged as groups sought to achieve independence for areas under colonial rule. [62], The South, Midwest, and Northeast had quite different economic structures. Jackson's followers, however, saw the episode as a demonstration that no single state could assert its rights by independent action. The three major attempts at compromise, the Crittenden Compromise, the Corwin Amendment and the Washington Peace Conference, addressed only the slavery-related issues of fugitive slave laws, personal liberty laws, slavery in the territories and interference with slavery within the existing slave states.[59]. [173] Buchanan believed the sectional hostility to be the accidental, unnecessary work of self-interested or fanatical agitators. Nevins pointed out that the North and the South were rapidly becoming two different peoples, a point made also by historian Avery Craven. This volume of primary documents on the causes of the Civil War presents the history of the American political order during its most tumultuous and challenging time. Wendell Phillips, one of the most ardent abolitionists, attacked the Slave Power and presaged disunion as early as 1845: The experience of the fifty years shows us the slaves trebling in numbersslaveholders monopolizing the offices and dictating the policy of the Governmentprostituting the strength and influence of the Nation to the support of slavery here and elsewheretrampling on the rights of the free States, and making the courts of the country their tools. Aaron Sheehan-Dean, "A Book for Every Perspective: Current Civil War and Reconstruction Textbooks". Finally, there was no secret ballot at the time anywhere in the United Statesthis innovation did not become widespread in the U.S. until the 1880s. [95] The KansasNebraska Act of 1854 legislated this doctrine. Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1861), The Constitution and the Union [38], Former President John Quincy Adams, who was elected to the House of Representatives in 1830, became an early and central figure in the opposition to the gag rules. Southern historian Gordon Rhea wrote in 2011 that: Tariffs appear nowhere in sermons and speeches, and 'states' rights' are mentioned only in the context of the rights of states to own other humans. [citation needed], Republican leaders, however, staunchly opposed any attempts to modify the party position on slavery, appalled by what they considered a surrender of their principles when, for example, all the ninety-two Republican members of Congress voted for the Crittenden-Montgomery bill in 1858.