The American Civil War
The American Civil War was a military conflict between the United States of America (the Union), and 11 secessionist Southern states, organized as the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy). It was the culmination of four decades of intense sectional conflict and it reflected deep-seated economic, social, and political differences between the North and the South. One of the major causes of the Civil War was the seemingly endless political disputes over slavery in the Mexican Cession and Louisiana Purchase territories. It was imperative that the Democratic and Whig political leaders maintain harmony between their Southern and Northern supporters, thus, the platforms of both during presidential elections like that of 1848 tried to avoid that particular slavery question. However, the extension of slavery into the new territories was one of the largest issues of the time, and with growing opposition from the North, evasion of it became increasingly difficult. Another significant cause of the war was the growth of different responses to antislavery practices such as the Underground Railroad and reactions to runaway slaves and the Fugitive Slave laws that spurred from all sections of the country. Finally, there was the ec
The North blamed the Panic on low tariffs. Horace Greeley, writer of the New York Tribune, wrote in 1857: "No truth of mathematics is more clearly demonstrable than that the ruin about us is fundamentally attributable to the destruction of the Protective [Walker] Tariff." The South, which had suffered much less than the industrial North, saw the Panic as proof of the superiority of the Southern economy in general and slavery in particular. The North's financial distress added impetus to the idea of using the federal government's vast land for three proposed land-grant measures: a homestead act, a Pacific railroad act, and grants to states in order to establish agricultural and mechanical colleges. Free land would help farmers ruined by the Panic to get a new start. Labor reformer George Henry Evans believed that homesteads would also give unemployed workingmen new opportunities as independent landowners and raise the wages of those laborers who were still stuck behind. A transcontinental railroad would "tap the wealth of the West" as well as bind the country together, provide employment, and increase the prosperity of all regions. In 1857 the United States was struck by a short but severe depression. There were three basic causes for this "Panic of 1857". Perhaps the most important was the interruption in the flow of European capital into American investments as a result of the Crimean War, which lasted from 1854 to 1856. The European conflicts during those two years cut off Russian grain from the market, and "American exports mushroomed to meet the need." This intensified a surge of speculation in the western lands, much of it over-speculation. Several years of over-speculation in railroads as well as the lands was another cause of the panic. Besides all of this, the decade-long expansion of all economic indices had also produced rapid rises in the prices of bonds and stocks. There were many circumstances that caused the outbreak of the American Civil War in the 19th century. The greatest factors were the arguments over the slavery status of proposed states, hostile feelings produced by mixed reactions to fugitive slaves and the means of catching or protecting them, and the Panic of 1857, which also led to bellicose sentiments and actions over the uses of public land. Besides these, there were secondary reasons, as well, numerous and piled-up from decades of conflicting interests. All of these contributed in producing, measured in physical devastation and human lives
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Approximate Word count = 1690
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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