what was the point of the civil war?

Answer 1

Like everything else, it was about Money and Power. The North claimed it was about stopping slavery, but they really could care less about blacks. The Federal Gov't wanted the right to control the individual states. The Southern States took exception to this, partly because the rules they were being faced with would have cost the people a LOT of money. Since the North won, it's painted as being about freeing slaves.

Answer 2

When the slave states seceded, they took possession of forts, arsenals, mints, and other U.S. government property by intimidation or force. Once the shots were fired on Fort Sumter the possibility of compromise was over. Force was met by force, and the point of the Civil War for the Union in 1861 was to put an end to the rebellion. By 1863, once the Union knew it had the advantage, and after the goverment passed the Emancipation Proclamation, the points were to end the rebellion and abolish slavery.

Answer 3

States Rights

Answer 4

The Gettysburg Address is one of the most eloquent lies I have ever read. The reasons for the war are not to be found there. The men who were buried there were the ones fighting to wipe from the earth a nation of the people, for the people. Confederates did not fight to destroy the United States.

The point of the Civil War was not to end slavery. Slavery was an agitating element leading up to the war. Slavery was also the element which allowed powerful men in the South to stay wealthy independently of the industrial economy.

The planters were very conservative, and believed in the Jeffersonian ideals of a limited central government. It's important to point out that this philosophy did not interfere with their way of life, and how they earned their income.

Industry had taken hold in the North, and the conservative philosophies championed by the Planters DID interfere with their way of life. The Hamiltonian philosophies of a strong central government, a centralized banking system, and using federal revenues for internal improvement to aid industry aided their way of life. Henry Clay later became a strong proponent of these ideals, and one man who admired him and believed in those same ideals was Abraham Lincoln.

These are the two thing which divided the house that couldn't stand against itself.

Until shortly after the Industrial Revolution, the Southern and Middle Colonies dominated the central government, and their interests were pretty much the same. By merit of population they controlled the House, By merit of there being slightly more of them, they ruled the Senate. 10 of the first 13 Presidents were from these colonies, and most of the early Supreme Court Chief Justices were as well. And under this domination, the Eastern and Northern colonies did not always fair well.

Three times the New England states considered secession. The first was during the War of 1812. The embargo that Jefferson put in place against the British crippled New England shipping. The British were their main trading partners. The issue was solved by peace, but several states were prepared to leave the Union if their grievances weren't addressed.

The next threat of secession was over the Louisianna Purchase. The Northern and Eastern states accused Jefferson of attempting to establish a domination of them by expanding into that territitory. The last was the admission of Texas as a state to the Union. Texas was the last slave state admitted without some sort of compromise. Compromise was required because things were turning to the favor of the other states.

After the Industrial Revolution, immigration into the Middle and Southern states was stagnant compared to the Northern and Eastern states. The population shifted, and the North gained control of the House. The only parity that could be achieved in Congress was in the Senate, this is the reason for all the bickering and compromises over the expansion of slavery into the Western territories.

By the time Lincoln was elected, all parity was at an end. The Southerners did not trust the Northerners because they had already shown a disregard for keeping their side of the Constitution.

South Carolina had attempted to nullify federal tarrifs before, and failed. More than 5 Northern states nullified Federal laws without any action being taken against them. They found themselves at the mercy of the other states, the tables now turned, and they didn't see much mercy being offered.

Let me jump to the eve of the war for a moment. Wouldn't separating end all the division? Wouldn't this remove all opposition to implementing Clay's vision? Yes, but the opposition wasn't a threat any more; the government was under their control. What else would lead Lincoln to decide he would rather go to war than let the Southern states leave?

Raw materials were one reason. At one time there was a saying that, "Southern cotton makes Northern sails." It didn't just mean the New England shipping interests used Southern cotton to manufacture sails, it also meant Southern raw materials were the reason the ships existed to begin with. Southerners grew, Northerners traded.

By the eve of the Civil War Southern raw goods weren't quite as king as they once were. The Midwest had developed into a cornucopia of cotton, wheat, corn, cattle, swine, and other products. The key to transporting those goods was the Mississippi river. New Orleans had become the largest trading port in North America. The Confederacy, if allowed to exist, would control Mississippi River shipping. So they would have all their goods, and control the shipping of all Midwestern goods.

At one time canals were considered, and some rails were built, but what was available for transport overwhelmed these two methods. The canals were abandoned. Only barges floating the river could move all that material.

You have to realize what a threat that was to Northern shipping and industrial interests. You could compare it, in modern times, to an antagonistic foreign interest controlling almost all crude oil supplies to the US.

Now there were other reasons too. One of them was banking interests. For some reason I still can't fathom, several Northern banks sent representatives on a tour of the South in the 1850's to offer loans to planters. Some people I've read theorized that the planters accepted the loans, which in most cases they didn't need, out of politeness. I've seen estimates that put the amount of loans upwards of $100,000,000. I feel certain those bankers, who were backers of the Republican party, put pressure on the Lincoln administration over that money. They would have no way to force payment of those debts in a foreign nation, which the Confederacy was intent on becoming.

The points of the Civil War were to secure the interests of US states commerce and industry, to maintain control of the Mississippi river, and to settle forever the course of the nation in favor of the Hamilton-Clay faction. This last included establishing the absolute primacy of the Federal government so that it could enforce laws friendly to trade and commerce not only among the states, but internal to them as all.

Slavery was used as a weapon, a tool, to defeat the opposition.

Answer 5

there were many reasons for the war the south thought it as a way to be free from the north and to get away from the high tax imposed by the north a way govern then salves in short a revolution. the north was trying to end slavery and save the union. So both side thought they were right but the north won.

I hope this helped

Answer 6

To create a booming market in history textbooks.

Answer 7

Read Lincoln's Gettysburg Address...
Therein you will find the answer.

Answer 8

Any war is pointless, really!