Causes of the Civil War

             'Discuss the view that secession, rather than slavery caused the Civil War"
             Although during the conflict both the Unionists and Confederates may have strongly believed that secession was the sole cause of the war, we can see now that this is not the case. This is reinforced by Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address on March 4, 1865, in which he stated that slavery "was, somehow, the cause of the war". This is due to slavery having been the prime reason for the first Southern states seceding, which in turn started the war.
             The fact that the South's real reason for secession was slavery is stated plainly in the 'Declarations of Causes of Seceding States of Georgia', which said "We must either submit to degradation, and to the loss of property worth four billions of money, or we must secede form the Union framed by our fathers, to secure this as well as every other seecies of property". The question remains though, why did the Southerners feel that their 'peculiar institution was threatened'? Lincoln may have said "I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.... It will become all one thing, or all the other", however, by this Lincoln did not mean the abolishment "will be in a day, nor in a year, nor in two years. I do not suppose that in the most peaceful way ultimate extinction would occur in less than a hundred years at the least; but that it will occur in the best way for both races in God's good time, I have no doubt". Instead, he and the Republican Party only wanted to halt slavery's further spread, forcing the remaining slavery to slowly 'wither and die'.
             The North's wish to stop the further spread of slavery was because of the territorial acquisitions which had added six states to the Union, five of them were slave ones. A similar treatment of the newly acquired territories wou...

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Causes of the Civil War. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 13:12, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/15835.html