The Cause of the Civil War
When the two joined together under the Constitution they knew they would be bringing together two different economic and social systems. But at the time the two sections were balanced in population and number of States. So there was no danger of one infringing upon the other.
Keeping the equilibrium became harder as the country grew, and the conflict began. The North soon attained power over every department of Government. There were thirteen Northern states and twelve Southern (considering Delaware as neutral), making a difference of two senators in favor of the North. In the House of Representatives, the North had 135 members and the South 87. So, in all questions pertaining to the diversity of interests between the North and South, the South’s interests were sacrificed to those of the North.
Through the adopted system of revenue and disbursements, an undue portion of the burden of taxation was imposed upon the South and an undue portion of its proceeds appropriated by the North. The North demanded a high tariff, “so as to monopolize the domestic markets, especially the Southern market, for the South, being Agragarian, must purchase all manufactured goods,” says southern historian Frank Owsley . The South fought the institution of the tariff, and almost seceded because of it. The resulting effect of the tariff was to transfer a vast amount of wealth from South to North. Under an equal system of revenue and disbursements, this would not have happened.
Because there was so little restraint to prevent the Government from doing whatever it wanted, a small group of Northern abolitionists saw this as their chance to agitate for freeing the slaves. But whether or not the Abolitionists were sincere and knew anything about Southern slavery can be easily questioned. There could be several ulterior motives for promoting a subject that the country was so divided on. England, for instance, would have liked to see the newly founded country, that might eventually become their rival, self-destruct.
In 1835 the Abolitionists organized societies, established presses, sent out lecturers, and scattered incendiary publications throughout the South. This aroused the South, as many regarded slavery as something that could not be completely destroyed immediately without subjecting the two races to a great calamity and the South to poverty and desolation. John C. Calhoun, a spokesman for the South, said that they felt “bound, by every consideration of interest and safety, to defend it.”
By safety, Calhoun referred to the instance where slaves killed their masters, and even women and children. They couldn’t have men like this loose without endangering themselves and their families.
There is no doubt that slavery was wrong, but at the time a slave was considered property, and a person’s property was protected in the Constitution. The North ignored the law which said that slaves must be returned to their masters if they escaped to a free state, and not only helped the slaves hide but also incited them to escape. This could cause the slaveowners to lose thousands of dollars at a time.
The Abolitionists continued in their battle against slavery and gradually gained more and more power, so that eventually they were agitating the whole Union.
In 1854 the Republican party was started. The Republicans were opposed to the spreading of slavery, and believed that it should be confined to the Southern states in existence at the time, and not be allowed in any new states. The South was naturally opposed to this because it would only continue to weaken their power in Government.
Again, the natural differences between North and South come into play. “The North had interests which demanded positive legislation exploitative of the Agragarian South; the South had interests which demanded that the federal Government refrain entirely from legislation within its bounds – it demanded only to be let alone,” says Owsley. To keep a firm grasp on the South the North had to check its growth. They weren’t stopping slavery, but the spread of the Agragarian ideals. If too many people believed that their rights were being taken away by the Government, the North would lose its power.
In 1860, Lincoln, a member of the Republican party, ran for the Presidency and the South declared that if he was elected they would secede.
By then, the South’s perspective was that the Union had already been destroyed and the only means by which they were still connected to the North was through force on the part of the latter. Calhoun said that what had been started as a federal republic was becoming a “great national consolidated democracy.”
The Declaration of Independence states that “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government…”
The Government no longer held the consent of the governed, and soon after Lincoln was elected the South seceded. Jefferson Davis, confederate president, said “as a necessity, not as a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separating…”
Slavery was only one of the many differences between the North and South, it was not the primary reason for the war. Lincoln himself said the war not about slavery. He told Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune that his “paramount objective in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not to either save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some of the slaves and leaving others alone I would also do that.”
Lincoln may have wanted to “save the Union,” because he knew that the North could not progress without the South. In 1840 the South paid 84% of the tariffs, rising to 87% in 1860. Shortly before Lincoln had become President the highest tariffs in US history were imposed. It’s also possible he knew of the ulterior motives of the men who provoked the South and didn’t want the country torn apart because of them.
In any case, Lincoln didn’t have the authority to call in 75,000 men whose first service would be to capture the Confederate forts. To the Confederates that was a plain declaration of war and, under the Constitution, a power granted exclusively to Congress.
During the war the North used uncivilized tactics, waging war upon civilian areas. Lincoln justified this on the grounds that he was dealing not with a traditional war but with a rebellion, but it was no such thing. The Southerners had the right to secede, and they were not “rebels” as Lincoln referred to them.
No State would have joined the Union if it had known it would have to fight to get out. The Union was a voluntary association; every state had a perfect right to secede.
After the Colonies won their freedom from England, they were free and independent States. They had joined the Union of their own free will, and should have been able to leave of their own free will for any reason at any time. The Declaration of Independence gave them that right.
Slavery, though wrong, was not the primary reason for the war. The primary reason for the war was the difference between North and South. The South had seceded because of the difference, the war was fought because they had seceded.
