Lincoln Essay, Research Paper

The Civil war rages,

the “War between the States” has become

known as the bloodiest war ever fought. The Civil War divided the United States

between its Northern and Southern states. The battles lingered for long years, but the

consequences of the war have endured time. The start of the war began with the firing on

Ft. Sumter by the Southern states and lasted until General Robert E Lee surrendered his

southern troops at Appomattox Court House in Virginia on April 9, 1865. The War

pitted brother against brother in attempts to retain a way of life and thinking. Although

there has not been agreement on the major causes of the War, this essay will explore

possible immediate causes and long term causes of the War. The immediate causes of

the war that will be discussed are the election of Lincoln as president, the quest of the

South to succeed from the Union, and the firing on Fort Sumter. The longer term causes

discussed will be economic differences between the North and South, failure of Congress

to compromise and the slavery and territory issues.

The immediate causes of the War were the election of Lincoln as president. The

fire-eaters threatened secession because of Lincoln’s affiliation with abolitionist. The

Southern states wanted their independence respected by the national government. The

preservation of the way of life in the Southern states was of utmost importance. In

opposition to legislation that would strengthen the national government the Confederacy

rejected the demands of the Union. The Southern states believed that the right to succeed

from the Union was within the doctrine of states’ rights. Secessionist believed that the

national government was a conglomeration of sovereign states and that any state had the

legal right to remove itself from the Union. As Lincoln gave his inaugural speech he

declared that secession was illegal and that he would acquire Southern possessions. One

of these Southern holds would be Fort Sumter, which is located in the heart of the South.

On April 12, the Confederacy fired upon Sumter to capture better position to defend

initiated the battle that would culminate into the bloodiest War ever.

The economic climates of the North and South differed a great deal. The North’s

economy depended heavily upon industry. The South was based on an agricultural

economy, which produced such cash crops as tobacco, cotton, and sugar would suffer

great hardships. Secession was key to the survival of the South and its way of life.

Without secession the South would have to face an economy without its cheap resource,

slave labor. Southerners felt that slavery should be the foundation of their society and it

was more of a necessity than an evil. With expansion facing Congress, the issue of

slavery played a key role in the division of the Union. Anti-slavery advocates demanded

that slavery be left out of the new territories.

Legislation was continuously introduced into Congress that would limit the span

of slave labor, however the South responded by stating that could not be prohibited from

any land that was in the Union. The slavery issue was a constant in legislation with

Congress, various compromises attempted to settle the issue but with no solution.

Popular-sovereignty was a compromised that would have allowed the territory itself to

establish the laws on slavery, but proved damaging to the cause of the Anti-slavery

activist because it allowed slavery in states that had previously determined it to be illegal.

In order for the issue to be resolved and to keep the Southern states from seceding the

Union a compromise needed to be reached. Of the compromises submitted to the

national government, the Crittenden Compromise was the most popular. The Crittenden

Compromise attempted to protect the system of slavery by establishing amendments that

would limit the national governments ability to abolish it. This Compromise was not

successful because of Lincoln’s strong stand against the institution of slavery. The failure

to compromise between Congress lead to further division amongst the States.

The actions of the North and the South and their failure to compromise lead to the

most costly war in human casualties ever. The destruction of the South’s way of life and

a new Union were the direct results of war. The eventual collapse of slavery and the total

collapse of the South’s economy, along with Lincoln’s leadership brought forth a new

nation and economic structure. This new structure brought tariffs favoring for

manufacturing, free homesteads, and central banking, and railways for everyone. The

division of the states has long been felt with the heritage of hatred that remained

following the war. The War was the beginning and ending of a way of life for all, and

the beginning of an expansion era of the United States.