Essay Example: The American Civil War Was Inevitable
The Civil War of The United States was inevitable. From the start of the nation, until the first state seceded, the Northern and Southern parts of The United States had tensions. The economic plan the United States economy was built on, the Louisiana Purchase, the Market Revolution, and the Mexican American War, all led up to the seceding of the Confederate of the Union and the Civil War.
There was a deleted clause of the Declaration of Independence. In said clause, slavery’s mentioned, and is blamed on King George the Third. The clause was deleted as to not anger the South, and to keep them in their cause. After the Revolutionary War, it was highly debated about the place of slavery in the new country of America. The delegates of the Southern states wanted slavery to have a place in the United States. However, some of the Northern delegates were against slavery and did not think that slavery should not have a place in this new nation. The state of Massachusetts’s went as far as to say, “ All men, whites and blacks, are born free and equal.”
The South did not secede only over slavery, though it was one of the main reasons. They also seceded for economic reasons. The North and South had two completely different economies. The North and East were industry based, while the South, and West were agriculturally based. We can see the ideas of these two economies emerging in the early 1800’a in what is referred to as “Hamiltonian Economics.” This refers to the era when Alexander Hamilton was trying to pass his pass his ideal form of a National Economy. Hamilton argued for an industrial nation, much to the benefit of the North. While Hamilton was indorsing an industrial nation, Thomas Jefferson argued for an agricultural economy, for the benefit of the South.
The Market Revolution refers to a historical time period when the United States was becoming less agricultural and more industrialized, at lest the North was.
Both the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican American War opened up 1,327,000 miles of land. The land was neither free, nor had slavery, and it was up for grabs. This land had to be decided as either free or slave territory. To determine this, Congress implemented what is known as the Missouri Compromise. The compromise enters Missouri as a slave state and Massachusetts as a free state. It made the southern border of Missouri the northern most border for slavery in the new Western territory. The compromise was highly controversial, as the North did not want slavery to spread, but the South wanted it to. The compromise helped to maintain the balance of slave states to free states making sure that one did not overpower the other.
Another way Congress implemented to determine if a state was going to allow slavery or not, was the practice of popular sovereignty. Popular sovereignty is the practice of allowing the territories (states before they apply for statehood) to vote on whether or not they enter the Union as a free state. This practice led to biased votes. People that lived in other states would go to the territory to participate in the vote on slavery. One big example of this is what is known as Bleeding Kansas. According to the Missouri Compromise, both Kansas and Nebraska were supposed to enter the Union as free states. However, Congress overturned that decision for Kansas and Nebraska in what is known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This act give both territories the right to popular sovereignty instead of the previously enforced Missouri Compromise. Many slave owners went to Kansas, to help throw the vote, even though they did not live there. The state ended up entering as a slave-holding state, even though the actual majority of people were anti-slavery. [more bleeding Kansas stuff]
In conclusion, the Civil War was inevitable. From the beginning of the nation, slavery was heavily debated. Major historical events and periods only further increased the tensions faced by the North and South.
