CIVIL WAR.   Term Paper ID:28824 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Discusses the background & actions of the North & the South, 1800-1861 that made war inevitable. Geography, economics, slavery, politics, governmental actions.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Discusses the background & actions of the North & the South, 1800-1861 that made war inevitable. Geography, economics, slavery, politics, governmental actions. Paper Introduction: NORTH AND SOUTH AND THE COMING OF THE CIVIL WAR Introduction Between 1800 and 1861, the North and the South had become two different societies. This paper considers geography, economics, politics and governmental actions that led to the inevitability of the Civil War. Background From the implementation of the Constitution of the United States, States held the belief that they should be able to decide what type life they should live under state law in accordance with the wishes of the state's populace, and that the federal government should not interfere. There was more loyalty towards one's state than to the federal government. This was true for both those living in the North and in the South(Perman, 18). Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. In 1854, Congress passedthe Kansas-Nebraska Act that wiped out the old Missouri Compromise line andopened more of the West to slavery. By the late 185 s, there was a substantial body of public andpolitical opinion in the North that held that the society and institutionsof the South were immoral and illegal. Living agriculturally, they depended on slave labor towork the fields. On the motion ofJefferson Davis, it was decided that no proposal would be reported asadopted unless supported by a majority of the Republicans and a majority ofthe Democrats serving on the committee. Six candidates were nominated: Douglas of Illinois, Andrew Johnson ofTennessee; Daniel S. Breckenridge ofKentucky for President. In reality, the warbetween the beliefs of the North and the South began many years prior tothis date. Their commodities accounted for more thanhalf the nation's exports, and the plantations themselves were importantmarkets for the products of northern industry (Morrison, 89). The new Republican Party dedicateditself to repeal this law and to place limits on the spread of slavery. Kansas became a battleground of Abolitionists and pro- slaveryforces. This paper considers geography, economics, politicsand governmental actions that led to the inevitability of the Civil War.Background From the implementation of the Constitution of the United States,States held the belief that they should be able to decide what type lifethey should live under state law in accordance with the wishes of thestate's populace, and that the federal government should not interfere.There was more loyalty towards one's state than to the federal government.This was true for both those living in the North and in the South(Perman,18). Throughout this period, tariffs were imposed onimports in order to protect the internal industrial development of thecountry, which the South came increasingly to see as favoring the North.Increasingly, during the twenty years before 1861, the North developed thebasis for an independent self-generating economy, which the South did not.Southerners became increasingly fearful of Northern domination througheconomic power (Niven, 68).The Politics of Geography and Slavery In 182 , the Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery in lands north ofMissouri's southern border, and its provisions tested the utmost strengthof the Constitution. The Northern wing of the Democratic Party met on June 18 inBaltimore and nominated Douglas for President. In1787, the Northwest Ordinance barred slavery from lands north of the OhioRiver and east of the Mississippi River. The split of theDemocratic Party guaranteed a victory for the candidate of the RepublicanParty, Abraham Lincoln (Niven, 235). On the first ballotDouglas received the largest amount - 145 1/2 - far short of the 2 2required. Many distinguishedthemselves not only in agriculture but in the professions, in the military,in government service, and in scientific and cultural endeavors (Levine,Foner, 37 ). The South was continuously on the defensive. Theirproprietors aspired to and sometimes, after a generation or two, achievedthe status of a cultivated landed aristocracy. Dickinson, of New York; Joe Lane of Oregon; JamesGuthrie of Kentucky; and R.M.T. Are states sovereign entities withina Union and do they have certain rights to live as their populace dictates?That question is still debated today, as the most recent Presidentialelection clearly demonstrates. On December 18,186 , a committee of the United States Senate wasformed to investigate the possibility of a "plan of adjustment" that mightsolve the growing secession crisis. In 1849, the Senate was balanced with 15 free states and 15 slavestates. Yancywas outraged by Douglas's Freeport Doctrine, which held that in no waycould Federal laws protect slavery in a territory where the peoplethemselves wanted no slavery. Works CitedLevine, Bruce C.; Foner, Eric: Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots ofCivil War; New York: Noonday Press; 1992.Morrison, Michael A.: Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse ofManifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War; Chapel Hill: Univ ofNorth Carolina Press; 2 .Niven, John: The Coming of the Civil War, 1837-1861; New York: HarlanDavidson; 199 .Perman, Michael: The Coming of the American Civil War; New York: D CHeath & Co; 1992.----------------------- 9 Throughout the early part of the 19th Century, planters ambitious toaugment their wealth, together with their black slaves, were an importantdriving force in the economic and political development of new territoriesand states in the Old Southwest. If Yancy had not prevailed in splitting the Democratic Party,would Douglas have claimed victory over Lincoln and thus delayed theanimosities of secession? President Andrew Jackson promised a lower tariff and issueda proclamation warning that secession and disunion by armed force was anact of treason and would be dealt with as such (Perman, 137). DredScott, a Negro in Missouri, sued for his freedom. The Southern wing met June28 in Baltimore and nominated Vice President John C. The conflict of principles remained. Pro-slavery border ruffians from Missouri raided and sacked thetown of Lawrence, and John Brown began his crusade of murder anddestruction at Pottawatomie Creek. For the South, it was notthat entities were to have slavery, but that they had the "right" to haveslavery. As of January 1, 18 8, Federal Lawmade it illegal to import Negroes (Perman, 34). NORTH AND SOUTH AND THE COMING OF THE CIVIL WARIntroduction Between 18 and 1861, the North and the South had become twodifferent societies. Depending on the labor of slaves, the plantations were both homes andbusiness enterprises for a white, southern elite. Slaves were considered property, and the South believed that theFederal government should not by law, dictate what property one can orcannot own (Levine, Foner, 132). The partyconvened in April in Charleston, South Carolina, for the purpose ofnominating a candidate for the presidency. They were the largest,the most commercialized, and on the whole, the most efficient andspecialized agricultural enterprises of their day, producing the bulk ofthe South's staple crops of tobacco, cotton, sugar, rice, and hemp. The "Prince of Fire-Eaters"William Lowndes Yancy, an avid secessionist from South Carolina, wasdetermined that the convention would fail and that the popular IllinoisSenator, Stephen A. During the first half of the 19th Century, zealous firebrands ofNorth and South broadcast abuse on economics, politics, and morality of theother until no reasoning between them could be heard. Tension again came in 1832 as South Carolina adoptedan ordinance nullifying Federal tariffs that favored Northernmanufacturers. Slavery existed in both North and Southbefore the Revolutionary War. In the 184 's and 185 's the South was a great deal richer than theNorth, primarily due to the exports of cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar, corn,wheat, and indigo. In1857, Abolitionists of the North and South were enraged when the UnitedStates Supreme Court gave their decision in the case of Dred Scott. Two separate nations would now go to war(Niven, 254).Conclusion Could this war have been diverted by cooler heads and in a dialog ofunderstanding communications? Possibly. Very possibly; only a very few on either sideof the issue were really ready to take up arms over it; even Lincoln waswilling to sign laws that would have protected slavery where it alreadyexisted. Hunter of Virginia. After long and bitter debates, the Compromise of 185 emerged and California entered the Union as a free state; the South got atougher fugitive-slave law in return. Good prices could be obtained by the export of theseproducts, especially cotton that was produced inexpensively due to theinvention of the cotton gin, and profits were high. The North's economic strength came from manufacturing, where wageswere paid, and profit was not as great. The South believedthat without the institution of slavery, the great staple products of theregion would cease to be grown, and the immense annual results which gavelife to every branch of industry, would cease (Levine, Foner, 67). History books say thewar began April 12, 1861, when forces under Confederate General PierreBeauregard fired on Ft. Sumter in Charleston, SC. The "Fireaters," as the extreme defenders of Southern slavery wereknown, spoke of destroying "the enemy" and spreading the slave systemeverywhere (Perman, 248).The Political Break-Up of the United States In early 186 , the only political party that embraced both pro-slavery and anti-slavery sections was the Democratic party. The pro-Douglas groups agreed to use the sameplatform that was adopted in Cincinnati in 1856. Douglas, would not get the party's nomination. Freedom from slavery probably began in 1775,when Rhode Island gave freedom to any child born of a slave mother. In order to win theParty's nomination, a candidate would need 2 2 votes. Under this restriction, thecommittee was unable to agree upon a satisfactory "plan of adjustment" andreported so to the Senate on December 31, 186 ; it was already too late,since on December 2 , 186 , South Carolina had voted an ordinance ofsecession from the Union, repealing its 1788 ratification of the U.S.Constitution. In a decision issued byChief Justice Taney, the court ruled that Congress had no power to limitthe expansion of slavery, that the Missouri Compromise had always beenunconstitutional; thus, Dred Scott remained a slave (Morrison, 98). In the South, there was the beliefthat the North was set on the destruction of all the South had come toknow. Called the "Committee of Thirteen"because of the number of its members, it failed to agree on any oneproposal but did have a number of worthy ideas presented. Anarchy reigned and Kansas became knownas "Bleeding Kansas" (Morrison, 141). New Mexico and Utah gainedterritorial status with the right to decide the question of slavery ontheir soil, whereas another law forbade the slave trade in the District ofColumbia. Ft. Sumter was the opening of Pandora=s box (Levine, Foner, 12).Economic Differences At the beginning of the United States in 1789, the South was animportant part of the country, which was already different from the mid-Atlantic states and New England due to the differences in colonialimmigration patterns and the economic domination of the region by theplantation system of agriculture. In doing so, South Carolina declared it was no longer anentity of the United States, that it was totally independent sovereignentity within itself. Throughout the years of the 19thCentury before the Civil War, as the North industrialized, bothindustrialists and workers came to fear the competition posed by theSouthern slave society. The Conservative wing of the party - which stoodfor the Union and strict law enforcement - formed the Constitutional UnionParty and nominated John Bell of Tennessee for President. Second, that the Territorial Legislature has no power toabolish slavery in any Territory, nor to prohibit the introduction ofslaves therein, nor any power to exclude slavery therefrom, nor any rightto destroy or impair the right of property in slaves by any legislationwhatever." No one could agree to this (Levine, Foner, 274). California wanted to enter the Union as a free state, which woulddestroy that balance. It was to be amended toinclude that all slavery issues were to be settled by the Supreme Court.This platform was not acceptable at all by the Southern Wing of the party,which formulated a platform that stated, "Resolved, that the Democracy ofthe United States hold these cardinal principles on the subject of slaveryin the Territories: First, that Congress has no power to abolish slavery inthe Territories. Fifty-seven ballots later, Douglas could receive only 152 1/2votes. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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