How could the civil war have been prevented?

Question

How could the North and and South come to a compromise?

Answer 1

We know it was not over Slavery Lincoln reapeatedly offered to allow anyone back in the Union WITH THEIR SLAVES and a promise they could keep them! No one took him up on the offer.

It was inevitable. The 1810, 1830 and 1850 census showed the South to be made up of roughly 50% Celtic, 30% English and the remaining 20% were German, French or Spanish. The Irish Potatoes famine of 1846-1850 killed a million plus Irishmen, the problem there was food but the British took it for themselves. Another good example of who has suffered under slavery. The real point the majority of English settled up North and continued to this day their opinion of superiority and want of control over our lot. .

There are these who have the need to demonize and discredit anything they don't like with or understand. Was the War over Slavery? Yes and no, it was a part, not as much as many would have you believe but again more than others would have you think. The renowned Shelby Foote, stated after his appearance in Ken Burns “Civil War” that the producer manipulated and edited his statements to make it appear that he the leading authority on the war was saying the war was over slavery, when he and any reasonable scolder knew better.

The war was over money. In the 1770s, the South had every reason to continue the relationship with England, one of its best customers. It was the manufacturing North that was getting the short end of that stick. Southerners joined the Revolutionary War out of patriotism, idealism, and enlightened political philosophy such as motivated Jefferson, not patriotism, philosophy, and economic betterment which inspired the North.

In 1860, the shoe was on the other foot. Southern agrarians were at heel to the nation's bankers and industrialists. That just got worse with the election of the Republican Lincoln, bringing back into power the party favoring the wealthy supply side, as it still does.

Then as now central to that, party's interest was keeping down the cost of manufacture. Today labor is the big cost, so today they move the plants offshore and leave US workers to their fate. Back before the US labor movement existed the big cost was raw materials, and the GOP was just as unprincipled toward its Southern suppliers as it is today toward labor. Thanks to modern graveyard science and surviving records, researchers know that in 1760, 100 years before the War Between the States, Charleston, South Carolina, had the largest population of slaves and we say proudly the SECOND LARGEST SLAVE POPULATION WAS IN NEW YORK CITY.
One of the main quarrels was about taxes paid on goods brought into this country from foreign countries. This tax was called a tariff. Southerners felt these tariffs were unfair and aimed toward them because they imported a wider variety of goods than most Northern people. Taxes were also placed on many Southern goods that were shipped to foreign countries, an expense that was not always applied to Northern goods of equal value. An awkward economic structure allowed states and private transportation companies to do this, which also affected Southern banks that found themselves paying higher interest rates on loans made with banks in the North. As industry in the North expanded, it looked towards southern markets, rich with cash from the lucrative agricultural business, to buy the North's manufactured goods. The situation grew worse after several "panics", including one in 1857 that affected more Northern banks than Southern. Southern financiers found themselves burdened with high payments just to save Northern banks that had suffered financial losses through poor investment. However, it was often cheaper for the South to purchase the goods abroad. In order to "protect" the northern industries Jackson slapped a tariff on many of the imported goods that could be manufactured in the North. When South Carolina passed the Ordinance of Nullification in November 1832, refusing to collect the tariff and threatening to withdraw from the Union, Jackson ordered federal troops to Charleston. A secession crisis was averted when Congress revised the Tariff of Abominations in February 1833. The Panic of 1837 and the ensuing depression began to gnaw like a hungry animal on the flesh of the American system. The disparity between northern and southern economies was exacerbated. Before and after the depression the economy of the South prospered. Southern cotton sold abroad totaled 57% of all American exports before the war. The Panic of 1857 devastated the North and left the South virtually untouched. The clash of a wealthy, agricultural South and a poorer, industrial North was intensified by abolitionists who were not above using class struggle to further their cause.
In the years before the Civil War the political power in the Federal government, centered in Washington, D.C., was changing. Northern and mid-western states were becoming more and more powerful as the populations increased. Southern states lost political power because the population did not increase as rapidly. As one portion of the nation grew larger than another, people began to talk of the nation as sections. This was called sectionalism. Just as the original thirteen colonies fought for their independence almost 100 years earlier, the Southern states felt a growing need for freedom from the central Federal authority in Washington. Southerners believed that state laws carried more weight than Federal laws, and they should abide by the state regulations first. This issue was called State's Rights and became a very warm topic in congress.

These are facts not emotions or unsupported claims, now what was the War over?


God Bless You and The Southern People.

Answer 2

Both the South and North, knew that it was inevitable. The split of the Union at least. That the North couldn't tolarate the slavery in the South, and the South in turn couldn't tolerate the policies in the North. Lincoln's original plans were either to send the slaves back to Africa, (Liberia) or to slowly put policies in to end slavery. Had he done that, it would have been LONG after his term that slavery would have finally ended. At the same time the South's attack on Fort Sumter demanded some kind of retribution from the North. Either way, war was inevitable.

Answer 3

It wasn't about slavery. The NORTH had slaves too. So how could it have been prevented? That's a hard question. Actually though if the Cotton Gin hadn't been invented slavery would have died off. Cotton was too hard to produce at that time. The Cotton Gin is what made it worth the money to make. If the South had been left alone and left to be it's own little nation it would have come around. It couldn't last very long that way. They had the money from Cotton but they would have seen the good in rejoining instead of trying to fund their country just with cotton money.

Answer 4

It would have happened no matter what! It was all about States Rights. The South wanted to keep slavery, and the Abolishionists wanted it to be prevented. The South didn nto want the Rich Northern States to tell the Agricultural South to stop using forced labor. Several Southern States tried to seceed and when Fort Sumter was fired upon the war was on.

Answer 5

The civil war could have been prevented mainly if a) They had no slaves in the first place. b) they reached an agreement between slave and free states. c) or the congress or supreme court at the time said that all the states should be free, or slave states (that might cause another war but this is just something i learned) or last d) they stop the people from transporting slaves and then wait for most of the slaves to die or become free( idk about that either lol)

Answer 6

Firstly, and contrary to popular opinion, it was not primarily over the issue of slavery; that was an excuse. It was a matter of economics : the Southern states were rich (because of its use of slaves?).

I don't think it could have been prevented. But there could have been factors that might have given the South victory. Would there have even been a United States of America today?

Answer 7

The only way it could have been prevented was for the north to let the south leave the union and form its own country

Answer 8

Civil War? English, Spanish, Russian. I presume we're talking about the American one. My money was on the union

Answer 9

The secessionist states could have been allowed to leave the Union the same way they entered it: as sovereign states which retain the right of self-determination.

Answer 10

It was inevitable. Both sides were bound to fight at one time or another. They chose to fight rite after Lincoln's election.