Causes Of The Civil War: An Arguement Essay, Research Paper
All wars begin from a common root: the fight for
one side?s ways of life. The causes of the Civil War were
no different. Three popular hypothesis for why the civil
war started are universal freedom versus slavery, agrarian
versus industrial economies and the belief in the power of
the states versus ?indivisible union,? but each one was a
part of the other and had an equal hand in fueling the war.
They can be summed up by saying that the war was caused by
two different economic systems trying to coexist under one
government, a ?house divided against itself cannot long
stand.?1 An extreme example would be if the US government
ruled over the United States and China; two separate ways
of life whose needs could never be met under one power.
The South as well as the North had a strong sense
of nationalism; neither side would yield. Lincoln himself
,whose goal was to unite the country, said ?I do expect it
will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or
all the other,?2 expressing his knowledge that two so very
different ways of life wouldn?t be able to be governed
together. At very least, one of the two side?s needs
would not be met. Under certain acts passed by the partisan
congress and courts, neither North or South was completely
satisfied.
The South?s needs were not met; they were forced
to pay tariffs on imported goods from Europe so the smaller
textile industry of the North could compete. Although
strong abolitionists were only 4% of the population in
the North, the South felt threatened. Men like John Brown
and Nat Turner brought fear of a slave uprising to the
South. Non-violent anti-slavery northerners wrote
literature such as Harriet Beecher Stowe?s Uncle Tom?s
Cabin, Frederick Douglass?s The North Star and Life and
Times, and William Loyd Garrison?s The Liberator. These
publications and incidents set the Southerners on the
defensive and some historians of today say they were a
little paranoid.3 In the North these publications only
heightened
issues.
Slaves were the main source of economic wealth
for the South. With the invention of Eli Whitney?s cotton
gin, more slave labor was needed to produce more cotton,
57% of their exports. Since they could not produce as
much as the North, and depended heavily on imports,
tariffs became more of a burden and perhaps an insult to
the South. The state of Georgia wrote in its Declaration
of Causes of Seceding States that one of its reasons for
seceding was they had to help foundling shipbuilders in
the North from foreign less expensive businesses by paying
taxes brought on by Congress.
“…they (the North) have sought to throw the
legitimate burden of their business as much as possible
upon the public; they have succeeded in throwing the cost
of lighthouses, buoys, and the maintenance of their seamen
upon the Treasury, and the Government now pays above $2,000,
000 annually for the support of these objects… This
interest was confined mainly to the Eastern and Middle
non-slave-holding States.”4
With a Congress overpowered by Northerners
protecting their own natural interests, whose unfortunately
were very opposite from the South?s, one side?s needs were
not going to be met. Alienated from each other in their
way of life and ideas, the South felt no paternal bond to
the Union but habit. With no obligation to the North and
each small or large injustice felt being a straw that broke
the camel?s back, the South seceded and the civil war
followed. Not due to just slavery, economic differences,
or different political ideals but to two different ways of
life did the civil war start.
footnotes:
1Ward, Jeoffrey C.. The Civil War. Alfred A. Knopf, New
York. 1990. page 45
2Ward, Jeoffrey C.. The Civil War. Alfred A. Knopf, New
York. 1990. page 22
3Freehling, William. The Road to Disunion. Oxford
University Press, New York. 1990. page 557
4Georgia, Declaration of Causes of Seceding States.
internet: http.//sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/reasons.html