- Published: October 2, 2022
- Updated: October 2, 2022
- University / College: Queen's University Belfast
- Language: English
- Downloads: 46
Accordingto the American Yawp, “ The American Civil War, the bloodiest in the nation’s history, resulted in approximately 750, 000 deaths…” this war erupted for variousreasons, some of which included sectional splits, the election of 1860, andalso the ambiguity of the constitution. Tying all of these factors together, theunderlying cause of the civil war in 1861 was slavery. For many years, the tension betweensoutherners and northerners only grew despite all of the compromises and sothere was a great sectional divide between most of the south who were pro-slavery and the abolitionist of the north. The two parties; Democratic and republicansought to have their elected candidates to win in order for their ideology toprevail but, after the election of Abraham Lincoln, a republican who won all ofthe free states during the election, Southerners greatest fear had beenrealized as losing slavery would hurt their economy. This led the southernersto unanimously declare secession, “ to dissolve their Union with the UnitedStates.” (American Yawp) Abraham Lincoln’s election as president in a waycompletely divided the nation, the south created a new confederate state thatwas all for slavery but a divided nation is a broken one and this fact greatlycontributed to the civil war as an effort to unite the states again.
All through the United states history, theissue of slavery had always one way or another been avoided and finally theambiguities regarding slavery in the constitution needed to be cleared up inorder for the nation to progress. The compromises that were made as a politicalfront to avoid the issue directly was failing. The fugitive slave act was nullifiedas General Benjamin F. Butler claimed that run-away slaves are “ contraband ofthe war” and so did not needed to be returned to the south sing the south was nolonger a part of the United States. Many other acts were passed that voidedother acts created before the civil war like the Second confiscation act in1862 that freed the enslaved that originated from the Union control. The vaguenessof the constitution allowed for the continuous tension in the U.
S and alsoallowed for constant change in the laws that divided the nation. The Political splits within the UnitedStates, the election of Abraham Lincoln as President in 1860 and the obscurityof the constitution are all factors that caused the civil war. But whatconnects all of these factors together is slavery. An issue that has beenavoided by the United States since the Pre-Columbian era.