Causes of the Civil War - Essay Example

The Election of Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of America In the campaign run in 1860 for the President, Abraham Lincoln expressed his stance against the slavery as well as his determination to restrain slavery’s expansion westward into the territories that had been newly acquired in 1850 from Mexico. Victory of Abraham Lincoln in the election laid the basis of a crisis for the whole nation because a vast majority of the Democrats in the south thought that Lincoln would not wait for long to abolish slavery in the South.

Most of the white people from the South favored the secession rather than inviting such conditions in the future where black people might enjoy the status of free citizens. The basis of this reasoning was the doctrine of rights of the states that considered the states to assume ultimate sovereignty. In December 1862, Abraham Lincoln declared to the Congress when the US was struggling with the Civil War, “we know how to save the Union. . . . In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free--honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve.

We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth” (Lincoln cited in Hannaford).The Promise of America cannot be fulfilled unless its requirements are addressed. The Promise of America is in the constitution’s introduction. In the US Constitution, the government promises providing the people with justice, tranquility, defense, and welfare. Lincoln’s intentions were noble and his victory signified a positive change in America and accordingly, he fulfilled the Promise of America.

Works Cited:Hannaford, Katharine W. “"Now He Belongs to the Ages": The Legacy of Abraham Lincoln, Abstract and Concrete.” American Quarterly. 51.4 (Dec. 1999): 871-881.