Why was the Civil War fought?

Question

Was it fought because the South Seceded from the Union, and the Union wanted it's land back?

Was it fought over slavery?

Was it a states rights issue?

In school, history classes always emphasized that it was fought over slavery. Why do you think America had a Civil War?

Answer 1

From readings of newspapers of era, Slavery was the hot button issue and state's rights clearly secondary. Slavery was seen as a "right" of property by many and they intended to defend that right by whatever means necessary.

Why a civil war? Politics is not a rational pursuit and sometimes the times are right for movements and actions that later generations might think or not think highly.

Morally speaking, slavery is a dead issue for we all believe it immoral to own other folks. Not so in the 1860's America. It was "property rights" and slavery was a form of property. Folks for instance in South, mortgaged slaves just as farmers today mortgage cattle for loans from banks. One had a right to own pigs, cattle, chicken and or other human beings.

How do you think folks would handle a movement to free the cattle today? Do you think there would be folks that believe they cannot free my cows and would take arms to defend the right to own farm animals? Yes, there are animal rights folks that believe so and some of them do quite illegal and controversial things to free animals. Right now, only a handful of folks believe animals have rights; but that movement could grow or it could die.

Add to this that folks believed they were a citizen first in their respective state, not the nation. Folks were Texans, New Yorkers or Missourians first; not Americans. Folks believed that DC was corrupt and they could find more justice in their respective state-houses.

Add the two and you have a very explosive situation in the 1860 election. Also, one must look at the problem of slavery was a problem before the signing of the constitution and congress/president/courts applied no real or lasting solution to the problem. That problem simmered for decades and the Dred Scot's decision did not help.

Answer 2

The Civil War (or as it is still called in the South, The War Between The States) was fought over what is (improperly) termed "State's Rights". (Aside: states have no rights, they have powers; only human beings can have rights. The issue truly should be called "State's Powers". The Constitution gets it right, of course, in Article X, reserving POWERS to the States.) The Southern States decided to secede after a number of things that were going on told them that they were not going to be able to preserve their powers in the Union. These things included: (1) the tariff laws (the amount of money to be paid the government in imports and exporting of goods to and from other nations) were biased toward the industrial north, and against the more agricultural south. (2) for a long time, there had been a need to keep the "south" even with the "north" in Congress, so that they had the same number of Senators at least. But population growth had made the south a minority in the House of Representatives, and America was running out of naturally "southern-leaning" places to make into new states, meaning that the "north" would also take control (and already had essentially taken control) of the Senate too, and the South saw this as only leading to more laws that favored the north over the south. (3) the election of Abraham Lincoln was also very sectional, and again showed the South that their votes didn't matter, even in Presidential elections, and that they could likely not hope to get a "southern" leaning man into the White House. They feared that a northern Congress and a northern President would continue to overrun the southern states, essentially moving money from the south to the north (which was happening). (4) the South had attempted to halt federal incursions onto the powers of the States through "nullification" and Supreme Court battles, but were rebuffed at every turn. The South felt that the nation had abandoned some of its basic principles, especially the fact that local governments should be supreme to the federal government in every single thing except the very very few things that the Constitution lists as being federal responsibility. The Confederacy essentially adopted the original U.S. Constitution (with very few changes) and made a commitment to stick to it better than they thought the U.S.A. had. Even the Confederate Constitution was not a pro-slavery document, and it anticipated the eventual end of slavery. The fact that the South held slaves and the north didn't was not really the reason for the war -- it is just that this was one of the great many differences between the two sides. As the war progressed, the wish to end slavery became more of a rallying cry in the north than it was to begin with. In fact, although abolition of slavery was definitely something that a lot of people in the north wished for before the war, and during the early part of the war, it was not as big an issue as we now think of it. Even when Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address, the "new birth of freedom" he talked about had nothing to do with freeing the slaves (but now, of course, it seems like it did). Lincoln freed the slaves and made it a goal of the war only when the war was going poorly and he needed to rouse popular support in the north to keep the war going.

Answer 3

Those are all correct answers. Slavery was one of two major states rights issues that caused south carolina to secede from the union. Tariffs were also an issue which was taught in my school. Saying that the civil war was fought over states rights and not slavery is simply creative wording. Slavery and unfair tariffs were the cause of the civil war.

Answer 4

Slavery is and was a popular excuse. Lincoln himself said if he could restore the Union without freeing a single slave, he would do it.

The real reason was economic. The population of the country was primarily in the North at that time, so the north controlled the House of Representatives, and the Electoral College for electing the President. That combination allowed the federal government, over the political objections of southern representatives and senators, to create massive tariffs on imported goods the southern states needed. These goods were far cheaper if imported than if purchased from the northern industrial centers. The southern states claimed that the tariffs were essentially "taxation without representation", a theme the original 13 colonies used in the fight for American independence form England. Right or wrong, the southern states declared independence from what they felt was a tyrannical power, just like the 13 colonies 84 years previous.

Answer 5

All of the above. It was fought because the South seceded from the Union over states' rights to have slaves. The root source of problem, however, is the slavery. No slavery, no battle over states rights. In that sense, your history classes have emphasized the correct item.

Answers here suggesting that slavery was NOT the root cause are incorrect. The southern states ultimately could NOT have kept their slaves, because the government that was elected was elected due to the abolition movement. In other words, the South seceded because they knew that Lincoln's government was anti-slavery. Slavery was on its way out, and the only way they knew they might be able to keep it was to secede and fight.

Answer 6

Typically the "official party line" story of "main cause" regarding any war is a spun to sale the war.

The main cause of wars are found by following the money. Find the economic advantages and who stands to gain from it and the reasons becomes revealed. The Revolutionary War was a mercantile enterprise, just as the wars against the Native Americans, and the Civil War.

In the Americas slavery was abolished by slave revolt, as with Haiti, or with legislation such as Brazil, The USA is the only nation that claims to had a Civil War to abolish slavery. Keep in mind that the USA is the nation of pretense and presumption, where image and perspective is everything.

Economically consider the business of exports and imports. The profiteers were located in the North and did plenty of business with Britain, France, and Spain. If the South or any of its states were able to export/import independently, it would have given them economic independence from the North.

The North was taking economic advantage of the South by taking raw materials and saling back the finished goods at inflated prices. The goods were either finished in usually Britain, or Europe. Overtime more in the North USA as industrial machinery and factory working became more common.

The rebellion of the South was no different than the rebellion of the colonies against the Brits. The was economic advantage for the "privileged few" in the South, just as there was economic advantage for the "privileged few" of the colonist.

The Civil War was a way to gain economic advantage over the South. The issue of slavery was a mere tool that added something to the validation of the war. It is similar to the Gulf of Tomkin, WMD'S, and other false claims employed as excuses to fight wars.

It is important to note that publishing houses from which textbooks come and movie studios fro which most ideas and notions of the South are also located in the North. The "spin" would most certainly be in favor of the dominant Northern culture.

War is indeed a racket. Look for the racketeers and the reasons will be revealed. Keep in mind that the USA is the nation of pretense and presumption, where image and perspective is everything. Think of them as the United Fakes of America, where the sly, the slick and the wicked portray virtue as vice and vice as virtue.

Answer 7

The Civil War had nothing to do with a slavery issue; it had everything to do with whether the United States would become an Agrarian or Industrial Society. The Agrarian -vs-Industrial issue had been festering since the Revolutionary War. The Industrial proponents, meaning the North and where the major industries were located, won the war.

Answer 8

To keep the country together. Abe did not want to allow the south to secede and took them to war to not allow it. Slavery was unfortunately a secondary issue.

Answer 9

It was to preserve the United States intact.

Slavery was an issue, but the Civil War was NOT a "war against slavery"

The Emancipation Proclamation was only issued after hostilities had begun, and it only declared slaves to be freed in those territories under armed rebellion againt the US government.

In other words, if they had laid down their arms, they could have kept their slaves.

Answer 10

I've often wondered why Texas, a formerly independent country that joined the Union with a specific clause allowing it to secede if it wanted to, wasn't allowed to secede under the original terms of the statehood agreement.