The Cause of US Civil War - Research Paper Example

US Historical Analysis on cause of US Civil War Number Introduction Perhaps the most controversial topic in America today is the main cause of Civil War. Even prior to the war coming to an end, scholars both from the North and the South had started to analyze and interpret the cause behind the Civil War. They immediately disagreed over the main causes of the war. These disagreements are in existence up to the present. Most of the scholars maintain that the main cause of Civil War was the desire of the southern state to maintain slavery. Discussion There was a Pew Research Center Poll that started in 2011 which established that America was significantly divided on slavery. 48 percent believed that the war was primarily on the rights of the state while 38 percent believed that the war was mostly based on slavery. The rest believed both or neither of the causes precipitated the wari (Holden, 2009). Every state within the Confederacy issued an “Article of Secession,” which declared their withdrawal from the Union. Four states Mississippi, Texas, South Carolina and Georgia all gave supplementary documents which are usually known to as the “Declaration of Causes” ii(Holden, 2009). These documents clarify the states’ decision to withdraw from the Union. There are two key themes of slavery and the rights of the state that come up in these documents. All of the fours states powerfully defend slavery as they make different claims linked to the rights of the state iii(Loewen, 2011). On slavery, it is believed that the North was not willing to tolerate slavery as a part of the US society structure and that it was the intention of the political power brokers to stop slavery in the entire Union iv(Loewen, 2011). Thus, according to most individuals, slavery is the main issue that explains the causes of the Civil War. Historians often talk on two diverse issues: the underlying causes of Civil War and personal motivations. The convictions that motivated men to put their life in danger for their country are not similar to the policies that thrust the country into war. By historians arguing that slavery resulted to Civil War, they are contending that the presence of “peculiar institution” made the resolving of political, economic and constitution problems impossible v(Tessa, 2013). However, critics argue that those problems that were under states’ rights were the real causes of the Civil War. There is no reason for not believing the real words of the Southerners about why they went into Civil War against the Union vi(Tewell, 2012). In addition, contrary to the belief of most people, most of the historians who argue for slavery as the main cause of Civil War do not say that it was the only cause. There are other documents that equally convince with their explanations on why the governing bodies which formulated the policies and not the men who executed them went into American Civil War. The curt to the secession point which was passed during the winter of between 1860 and 1861 rarely offer much in the way of explanation. However, many secession meetings also passed clarifications which were more explicit of their actions vii(Hanson, 2008). For instance, on the Christmas Eve of 1860, the secession of South Carolina approved the “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union” viii(Tessa, 2013). This paper above is introduced using the idea that one of the most crucial underlying causes of the dissatisfaction of the state was the increasing hostility of the federal government towards slavery. The states that were holding slaves would not unite with the Free states during 1787 without the explicit protection of slavery by the constitution. The document went on to state that the preceding decade had seen people, the government of the Northern states and the national government members threaten the slave owners rights to get back their escaped slaves and to move with their slaves to the territories that are common in the United States ix(Tessa, 2013). By citing slaves ownership as possibly the most upheld right that is protected by the doctrine of the rights of the states, the document makes it plain that the people who were leading South Carolina were to quit the Union, being sure that slavery was the main cause of the issue between the south and the Union x(Tewell, 2012). There is the argument of the “repressive conflict” which first dominated historical discussion. During the first decade of fighting, the Civil War histories showed the perspective of the Northerners. According to them, war was a stark moral conflict in which the South was responsible, a conflict that was as a result of the immoralities that were threatening. According to the history of Henry William of The Rise and Fall of the Slave Power (1872-1877), the northerners had fought the war to maintain the union also a system which was for free labor against the aggressive designs of the power of the slave xi(Loewen, 2011). There is also another interpretation that is more temperate, but one that arrived at a similar conclusion which came up in 1890s when the appearance of the first serious histories of war started. Preeminent among them is the Seven Volume History of the United States which is from the Compromise of 1850 by James Ford Rhodes. The same as Wilson and others, Rhodes cited slavery as the primary, in fact nearly the only thing that caused the American Civil War. He wrote, “If the Negro had not been brought to America, the Civil War could not have occurred” xii(Newman, 2013). Known that there was a position on the subject of slavery that had been reached by the North and the South that were both not reconcilable and unchangeable, the War became inevitable. There are other historians who argue that the war come up naturally, or even inevitably from a basic divergence between the section. These historians have also disagreed that other things such as social, cultural, moral, economic or even ideological issues were the main cause of Civil War xiii(Hanson, 2008). However, they have been in agreement that the conflict between the North and the South was deeply rooted in the nature of the two parts and that the crisis that finally came up was not repressible. There are however other historians who have questioned this argument and have stated that the Civil War could have been avoided and that the differences existing between the South and the North could not be crucial enough to have resulted in a war. Similar to those that are of the “irrepressible conflict” notion, those that believed the Civil War as a “repressible conflict” first came up in the nineteenth century xiv(Tewell, 2012). However, the notion of the war being avoidable did not get a broad recognition among historians until 1920s and 1930s, during the emergence of a group called “revolutionists” which started to give new accounts of the origins of the conflict. One of these revolutionists was James Randall, who perceived the economic and social systems of the South and the North as not being different or as important enough to have brought about a war xv(Etcheson, 2005). He proposed that slavery was an indispensable munificent institution which was in any case by now “crumbling in the presence of the nineteenth century tendencies” xvi(Etcheson, 2005). Randall argued that it is only a political lack of skills of a “blundering generation” of leaders which could give an account of the Civil War xvii(Etcheson, 2005). More stress on the subject of slavery is placed by Avery Craven who is also a leading revisionist. However, in The Coming of the Civil War (1942), he also has stated that the slave laborers were too much worse off than the North industrial employees and that the institution was already on the way to final extinction and that the Civil War could have been avoided, had accountable and skillful leaders worked to generate a compromise xviii(Etcheson, 2005). Conclusion From history, the fact is that from as early as the beginning of the US, there have been controversial issues that have been a threat to the American national unity. One of them is the slavery present in the Union, followed by the entangled markets of the production of raw material of the South and the manufacturing of textiles in the North, series of sectional compromises and political dispensations which perhaps led to Civil War xix(Newman, 2013). However, with time the nation was divided into two, following the banning of slavery in the North which built risky social, political and economical gaps between the Free states and the slave states. The armed conflict increased until in April 1861 when the Civil War was unavoidable. It would be historically inaccurate to ignore slavery as the primary cause of the American Civil War. Just by stating that most individual Confederates did not essentially risk their lives on behalf of the war does not withdraw the importance of slavery as the main cause of the Civil War to which many from both the South and the North offered their last measure of devotion xx(Hanson, 2008). It can be said that every war has its cause and that each soldier has his or her reasons for being armed. Annotated bibliography Etcheson, N. (2005). The Origins of the Civil War. History Compass, 3, 1. The article talks about the recognition of slavery as the cause of the American Civil War by Abraham Lincoln. It also does offer the interpretation of different historians on this issue. The historians have looked at both the South and the Northern parts interests that may have resulted to the war. This article has been used in the essay to get the insights of different historians on slavery as the cause of the American Civil War. Hanson, D. A. (2008). When Slavery Was Called Freedom: Evangelicalism, Proslavery, and the Causes of the Civil War (review). Journal of American Folklore, 121 (481) 361-362. This article is on the events that happened that led to slavery, slavery and the events that led to Civil war. The author reviews the cause of slavery in depth and its impact on the Civil War. Through this article information is got about the part that slavery played in causing Civil War. Holden, R. B. (2009). THE ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. The Rusi Journal, 154, 6, 88-94. The article gives the right chance to review the historiographical debate over the causes of Civil War, and also review the part that morality played in this war. The question of the impact of slavery on the war has been explored also. This article has been used in the essay to get more information on the part that slavery played as a cause of Civil War. The debate has given the views of different historians which have been used in the essay. Loewen, J. W. (2011). Getting the Civil War Right. Teaching Tolerance, 40 (40), 22-28. The author of the article examines whether the American Civil War started because of slavery or because of the states’ rights. It points outs that so many historians do not get it right. In this the article and be used to examine the views of this author and apply in the essay what is said of Slavery and Civil War. Newman, R. S. (2013). The age of emancipating proclamations: Early Civil War abolitionism and its discontents. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 137, 1. The author of this article looks at the abolition of civil war and its discontents. It contains the views of different historians on the ending of the civil war. By looking at this, it becomes possible to know what may have resulted to Civil War that was solved to end it. The article is useful in determining the strongest contributor of civil war according to different historians. Tessa, R. (2013). Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. This is a chapter that argues against the old South identification, the associate cause and the elements of pro-slavery in the American society. In so doing, the author takes part in extending the tradition of the abolitionist, which intensified the similar body of culture. The chapter contains information that has been applied in the essay to look at the relationship between slavery and the Civil War. Tewell, J. J. (2012). Assuring freedom to the free: Jeffersons Declaration and the conflict over slavery. Civil War History, 58, 1, 75-96. This article contains information about the history of the American Civil war. The author expresses the different events that took place prior to the beginning of the war. The article has been used in the essay in evaluating the position of slavery as a cause of Civil War. End notes Read More