Secession of slavery and other issues was a major discussion for a long time between the North and South. The republicans appealed to various groups in the North and swore elimination of slavery from territories. The Republican’s believe that a republican president would end the South’s controlling political issues. With the election of President Abraham Lincoln, it seems as if the South felt traded and the North felt empowered. This tension between the north and south finally exploded and seven states one after another seceded. In my opinion the secession could have been avoided in 1860 because there was much money to be made with trading and selling of goods. People believed that they needed slaves and could not imagine being without
Following this event some states would go on to pass a law to block the federal government from enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. The North and South would become more divided than ever before. (Norton, 2015) When Abraham Lincoln won the election in 1860 many in the country were deeply divided on the issue of slavery. The North was against it while the South was for it.
With the pressure following the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Act, many northerners opposed slavery and were concerned with the possibility of its expansion. In 1856, these northerners formed a new political party called the Republican Party. Once Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Republican candidate, the South began making plans to secede from the union if Lincoln was elected as President of the United States. In the “South Carolina Declaration of Causes of Secession”, delegates state, “A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. ”15
With the advent of Henry Clay's American System the United State’s federal government obtained greater power than in years prior. The Tariff aspect of the plan, tariffs that supported American industry, would ultimately lead to the Nullification crisis and South carolina’s secession in 1860. The southern states who agreed with South Carolina’s views felt that the Tariffs threatened the State’s Rights leading to greater sectionalism. However, the main cause of Sectionalism and the Civil War was the differing views of slavery between the North and South. The North who had never relied on slavery, due to their not really being a need for it and religious views against it, had started to develop a anti-slavery views in the late 18th century and early 19th century.
Republicans wanted to make sure the confederacy was going to stay faithful to keep their word to not to attempt depart again Federal Reconstruction had successfully freed the slaves by passing the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment, following many other great achievements throughout reconstruction. Reconstruction originally began during the civil war in 1863 attempted implement by President Lincoln. It was new journey to rejoining the former confederacy back into the union under slight punishment along with their word of trust. Many white southerner’s were still
The coming of the Civil War caused the level of uneasiness to grow ever greater with the threat of more states seceding and the election of President Lincoln. It was barely a century since the Revolutionary War had ended, and the threat of a new war seemed just around the corner. This was not a war between external foes, but one between brothers. The secession of South Carolina in 1860 brought seemed to bring tensions between the northern and southern states to a head. Both John S. Preston and President Lincoln gave speeches that greatly influenced the war.
It was clear that during Lincoln’s presidency, the American political system had failed. The South wanted to cede from the Union, and this was only one of the problems going on during this period of time. The division between the North and the South was extremely prominent; they were both passive enemies. The South wanted the right to own slaves and induce slavery, while the North thought slavery was immoral and unjust while referring to the Constitution for argumentative backup.
This was due to the fact that “the fate of the Union was at stake” as its candidates’ possible elections may lead a large group to become angry (“Why was the U.S. presidential election of 1860 important?” 1). It was an election between candidates Abraham Lincoln for the Republicans, John Bell nominated by the Constitutional Union Party, Stephen Douglas representing the Northern Democrats, and John C. Breckinridge as the Southern Democrat’s candidate. The various parties debated about topics including: a national tariff, a transcontinental railroad, and most importantly, slavery. It is vital to note that as a Republican centered in the North, “Lincoln insisted that he had always hated slavery, and committed himself politically to the extinction of slavery” (Guelzo 4). This strictly contradicted the Democrats who relied and supported slavery since they were mostly in the South.
They succeeded in taking control of the federal castles and other properties. But afterwards it was clearly proved that the south had no right for secession. Secession is the main reason for the American civil war; it divided USA into two federal unities. On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn as a president to the US, he was against the secession as therefore he declared that Confederacy was illegal and he called it “legally void”. Although Lincoln had no intentions to invade southern states, but he stated that it is only the U.S policy to collect the imports things from the ports.
When the westward expansion was accuring huge debates caused politicians to argue about free and non free states. After Fredrick Duoglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May of 1854, led to much violence because Douglas let people decide for either free or a non-free state instead of the people in just those states people from other states came to vote for slavery and non-slavery this led to much violence it caused the Kansas bleeding, this led to the Republicans having an upper hand (James 4/6/16). The North believed that slavery was outdated and wrong but were as the South being a slave based economy they saw nothing wrong of slavery. For example a Southern politician by the name Roger B. Taney stated that “Had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations: and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit” (CC#18). How the Republicans got a upper hand was because of the Kansas-Nebraska Act since there was so much violence just so Kansas and Nebraska can be slave states people saw this and wanted to support the Republicans because they didn’t want violence.
Slavery was an extremely prominent and debated issue in the late 1800’s that ended up dividing the United States in half. There were the Northerners who opposed the institution of slavery and the Southerners who gave it their support. The controversy over the use of slavery had been an issue between the North and South for a long time but it became even more evident during the election of 1860. Abraham Lincoln ran in the Republican Party a group who had devoted itself to keeping slavery out of the new territories as the country expanded westward. The south feared abolitionists would use violence in order to deprive the south of slave property.
The way the plea for abolition affected the economy in the North versus the South was vastly different. In the North it would not really disturb their ideal advance in industrialism but in the South however, they believed it would wreck their whole economic system. Morally most northerners were against slavery because of their early english origins while southerners did not see a problem with it because of their differing origins and agriculturalism stemming back from barbadian ideas(Hewitt and Lawson). The push for abolition from the North angered the South and further caused their want for secession. The South wanted to split the country while Northern politics wanted to unite it and abolish slavery.
‘Slavery was the root cause of secession’. ‘November 6 1860, Lincoln was elected president of America which resulted in panic emerging in the South’ . The election of Lincoln as president who was a Republican leader meant that ideologies, movements and values from the North would be implemented in the South which meant the abolition of slavery. Slavery was a huge characteristic of the South as the economy; politics; social status and psychological mind-sets were influenced by the process of slavery. The southern white population then derived the idea of secession which meant the South would gain independence from Northern aggression .
In 1787, the Constitution was written to unite all of the states together. At this time, the Southern States were very agriculturally focused and the Northern States were very industrialized. There were some disagreements between the states regarding the Constitution and division began to take place in the United States. Slavery was a controversial topic at the time. Enslaving African Americans had been a problem since the early 17th century.
The Republican Party was committed to restricting the growth of slavery, and its victory in the election of 1860 was the trigger for secession acts by Southern states. The debate before 1860 was mainly focused on the Western territories, especially Kansas and the popular sovereignty controversy. Lincoln was nominated as the Republican candidate for president in the election of 1860. Lincoln was opposed to the expansion of slavery into new areas, but held that the federal government was prevented by the Constitution from banning slavery in states where it already existed. His plan was to halt the spread of slavery, and to offer monetary compensation to slave-owners in states that agreed to end slavery (see Compensated emancipation).
Constitution and altered it by explicitly protecting the institution of slavery. This peculiar institution was what made the Confederacy unique. Sectionalism over economic, social, political, and constitutional issues regarding slavery continued from Buchanan’s inauguration in 1857 until secession after Lincoln’s election in 1860. “The expansion of slavery into western territories provided the catalyst for the growing perceptions of northerners and southerners that they held different intentions of the republic’s future.” “In the South, loyalty to slavery and its required expansion became the hallmark of party politics as the region’s politicians—Whigs, Know-Nothing, and Democrat—competed to demonstrate their loyalty to southern rights.”