what was the political and social parts of the civil war of 1861?

Question

is there any references i can look up to get more information on it? i looked at history and google.

Answer 1

No one who has studied the issue would dispute that for at least the first eighteen months of the war, the abolition of slavery was NOT the issue. Abraham Lincoln declared in his 1858 debate with Stephen Douglas:

I will say that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not, nor have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races from living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

Lincoln told Horace Greeley that if he could save the Union by freeing the slaves he would do so; if he could save the Union by freeing no slave he would do that; and if he could save the Union by freeing some slaves and leaving others in bondage, he would do that too.

Additionally, General Grant owned slaves while the majority of Southerners did not. General Robert E. Lee and General Stonewall Jackson were opposed to slavery.
At the time the Federal Government raised revenues with a tariff system. This tariff system was punitive to the Southern economy. If the South were allowed to secede and establish free trade, foreign commerce would be massively diverted from Northern ports to Southern ones, as merchants sought out the South's low-tariff or free-trade regime.

When the South rebelled, Lincoln sent 75,000 troops to invade the South and prevent its secession. Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Arkansas seceded only after Lincoln's actions; therefore, they certainly did not secede over slavery, but rather over Lincoln's decision to use millitary force to suppress Southern independence.

The soldiers on both sides articulated different reasons for fighting. Northern soldiers said they were fighting to preserve what their ancestors had bequethed to them: the Union. Southern soldiers also referred to their ancestors, but they typically argued that the real legacy of the Founding Fathers was not so much the Union as the principle of self-government (States' Rights).