The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861 with shots
fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina and the beginning of the end with General
Robert E Lee’s surrender to General Ulysses S Grant on April 9, 1865 at the
Appomattox Courthouse in northern Virginia. The last official battle was in
Palmito Ranch, Texas on May 13, 1865. Approximately 620,000 soldiers (although
some studies put the number as high as 850,000) died from combat, accidents,
starvation and disease. The Civil War is one of the bloodiest conflicts on
American soil. Many people will say the cause of the Civil War was slavery and
that is true and isn’t true. The causes of the Civil War are more complicated
and still very much debated then simply the slavery. In no particular order,
the causes of the Civil War can be seen in the struggle over states’ rights,
the abolitionist movement, the economics and political power of the slavery system
and the expansion or limitation of slavery into new territories.
First, the Southern states were asserting states’ rights
over slavery. The Tenth Amendment of the Bill of Rights states “The powers not
delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The states’
rights struggle is between the federal government and individual states over
political power (a struggle which can still be seen today). The struggle
between the Southern States and the federal government began with the Tariff of
Abominations on May 19, 1828. The tariff was designed to protect northern
industry at the cost of the southern economy. The outcry from the Southern
states nearly started a civil war with the threat of secession. So the debate
of states’ rights began to hear up hotter than before in the decades leading to
the 1850s. By the 1850s, tempers began to boil faster. In the case of the Civil
War, the struggle of states’ rights was the question if the federal government
had the right to regulate or even abolish slavery with an individual state. The
Southern States said no, the Northern states and the federal government said
yes.
Second, the abolitionist movement was a huge force behind
the events leading to the Civil War. The first outcry over slavery was from the
Mennonites and Quakers in 1688. It can gained momentum in Vermont in 1777 and
successfully lobbied the new United States government to ban the importation of
new slaves in 1808. The movement then looked to end slavery completely in the
United States. As the North slowly did away with slavery due to the influx of
Irish and German immigrants, by the early 1830s, the movement grew more and
more influential. With the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, the law
states that a runaway slave from one state was a fugitive in another regardless
if it was a slave or free state, helped the movement. Soon the Underground
Railroad begins to form. The railroad was a series of safe houses which
fugitive slaves used to reach freedom. The movement was further fueled by the
publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle
Tom’s Cabin (newspaper series in 1851, book format in 1852. The book
depicted the evils of slavery and offered a view many citizens in the country
hadn’t thought before.
Third, the economics and political power of the slavery
system was the most powerful cause to fuel the Southern states’ insistence on
the continuation of slavery. The Southern states were largely agricultural and
slavery helped keep the production going. The practice seemed to diminish and
seemly on its way out when Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin (1794) and the
need for slaves exploded as cotton got easier to harvest (American Civil War
magazine September 2010). The Southern states became very wealthy and very
powerful with the expansion of slavery. When the Republican Party formed in
1854, the party gained prominence as members were strongly opposed to the
westward expansion of slavery. As well as California being admitted to the
union as a free state in 1850, the political power had shifted to the North and
the abolitionist movement. The final fuel to the fire was the 1860 election of
Abraham Lincoln without a single Southern electoral vote. It was proof to the
Southerners that their political influence was waning. Feeling excluded from
the political system, the Southern states believed that secession was their
only option. This decision would be the final act which would led to war.
Lastly, the fight over the expansion of slavery in new
territories. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 restricted slavery in new U.S.
territories. In 1819, Missouri requested admission to the union as a slave
state which threatened to upset the balance between free and slave states.
Congress passed the compromise allowing Missouri as a slave state and Maine as
a free state. It also passed an amendment that drew an imaginary line across
the former Louisiana Territory establishing a boundary between free and slave
states. Slavery could not be permitted in states north of this line thus being
allowed in states below this line. It remained law until it was negated by the
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which contained the popular sovereignty clause which
the residents of the territory would decide if they wanted to be a free or
slave state, further divided the country. It would lead to the eruption of
violence known as Bleeding Kansas, John Brown and his gang and their trial of
massacres and murders. John Brown attacked pro-slavery settlers and later would
lead an attack on the arsenal in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia on October 16,
1859.
In conclusion, the events which led up to the beginning of
the Civil War helps see why the causes are still debated 156 years later. James
McPherson, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, believes the ultimate cause of the
Civil War was due to “uncompromising differences between the free and slave
states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery” in new
territories. In essence, the argument over states’ rights is at the root of the
Civil War. According to an article in the American Civil War magazine (September
2010), the origins of the Civil War began 250 years earlier when the first ship
of slaves arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Essentially, both claims are
true and yet doesn’t paint the whole picture. Slavery was interwoven into every
aspect of every event leading to the Civil War. Therefore, whatever cause you
may point to, one thing is certain, the Civil War was most likely inevitable.
