Essay about American Civil War

The South States of the United States dependent upon agriculture as a source of foreign and domestic exchange and therefore held a negative feeling about abolition of slavery. Nevertheless in order to save the image of the constitution as a legal binding document that granted freedom to all Abraham Lincoln together with the support of the Union states felt that liberal source of labour was much more profitable both to the economy and civilization of the United States.

The cotton and tobacco producing states felt oppressed by the antislavery tactics of the federal government and promptly seceded since the federal government was acting beyond the provisions of the constitution in abolishing slavery and therefore in response decided to secede from the Union for independence since they considered the Union’s constitution less supreme to individual states’ constitution.

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Therefore the American civil war was about the issue of different views about free labour against slavery and the subsequent supremacy of the Union’s constitution over individual states independence. The Union established the 13th amendment act that abolished slavery by allowing all men to be free and at liberty to and in order to preserve the constitution that formerly paradoxically upheld slavery, Abraham Lincoln had support the Union’s war against the pro-slavery south (Cornell University Institute, 2010).

The federal government had its quarters at the Washington D. C. while the Confederation has it headquarter at Virginia’s Richmond. The Union’s economy was organized and well established through the promotion of industries and use of immigrants as industrial workers and the general population while the south cotton and tobacco states derived their economic subsistence from agriculture with over five million slaves.

The Republican Party believed in democracy and justice regardless of ethnicity as a fundamental right under the auspice of the constitution-consequently in order to protect the supreme constitution’s aspirations to promote a coherent and democratic America the Union had to fight the southern militia that were against the Union control and abolition of slavery (Stampp, 1981, 144).

Religious, cultural and intellectual freedoms were being undermined in the South against the Union government’s principle of the 13th amendment act and the allowed slavery was denting the image of US in Europe that widely perceived the presence of slavery to as a sign of inability within the Union’s government to act.

Economically, the Union benefitted from the Union government economic policies and taxation more than the confederation. Therefore it was a mandatory economic issue that the United States had to be kept together despite the civil war through proper conflict resolution that would see the economic models of the North America spread to the south in order to end the former economic disparities between the two regions.

The economic value of the United states in the international market was dependant on the union more than a divided America that would soon enter into worse civil unrest realities and fierce interstate rivalry of ideologies and religious views that would have torn American into pieces as the American enemies projected as a mechanism to further colonize and control the economic power of the vast continent. Lincoln as the president had the right to preserve the Union from disintegration due to diverse political views in order to look in control (Stampp, 1981, 192).

Military aggression of the southerners was well advanced to inflict damage in courage and sustainable conquest tactics due to the recently concluded Mexican war experience to use the horse and the gun more effectively. Also, the North as the government knew that they were disadvantaged in military action and therefore the war had to be fought with a common ground that would help in enlisting more soldiers to defeat the south (McWhiney, 1984,170).

Therefore the Union was aware that in any case the southern aggression had to be suppressed if the power of the Union government under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln was to be recognized with respect as a legally binding Union. Therefore President Lincoln referred to the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation as the "last card, and I [Lincoln] will play it and may win the trick.

" And therefore “we must make that proclamation effective by victories over our enemies. ” Since “It's a paper bullet, after all, and of no account, except we can sustain it” (Don, 1862)-thus the president and the union were exercising a crucial and political will by suppressing the southern insurgency that threatened to break apart the United State into meaningless defragmentation that would soon shrivel up in economic and political disparity.

The south secede was politically seen as a form of annexation against the United States and Lincoln would have gone down the history as the president who broke the Union. Consequently, the Union had a political right to protect the US from becoming desolate in the face of the determined southerners who believed in offensive wars that “have many advantages; purely defensive ones will always end with submission” and that “the greatest minds in the South are coming to the conclusion, that our liberties are to be won by the bayonet.

Those regiments or companies that most distinguish themselves in bayonet charges will march on the true road to honor and preferment” (McWhiney, 1984, 144); such propaganda in the general media put the Union government into task of either preventing the escalating confrontation by the Confederation or face imminent alienation. Therefore the preservation of the Union was quite dependant in the military power of the Union over the south as the civil war was already in progress. The south seceded from the war after the election of Abraham Lincoln as the president of the United States.

The southern economy was dependant on agriculture. With the large scale growing of cotton, slaves and land conservation was necessary. The slaves were needed since they were a source of cheap labor on the white farms. As opposed to the south, the north’s economy dependent on industrial production of finished goods thus the slaves was not needed in the production. This meant that the southern life was based on the plantation and firm system while the northern life was based in the cities.

The southerners who benefited from agriculture were pleased to go to war with the aim of attaining independence as they thought the war would take a short time and they would come out victorious as they were better skilled fighters than the northerners. However, since the war showed no sign of coming to an end while the northern seemed to be taking all the advantages, the northern felt the need to guard and conserve their land against any force especially the northern thus leading to most abandoning the fighting to and protect their properties at home.

( Kelly 2010) The war of states versus federal rights led to the emergence of two camps within the government whereby each wanted to be in control over the other. After the American Revolution, a weak federal government formed by thirteen states called for a strong constitution since problems were on the rise. The frequent problems led to the secret creation of the US constitution by the leaders.

Due to the absence of some key leaders like Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry during the constitution making, it was felt the constitution had failed to put in mind the states’ rights of acting independently whereby a state would decide whether to accept or refute federal rights. This led to the idea of nullification that would see the freedom for states to rule the federal act as either unconstitutional or not. The southern states were for the option of each state making its own law instead of the central government. This was nullification as campaigned for by people such as John C. Calhoun who greatly advocated for the nullification.

When nullification failed to succeed, the southern states felt disrespected and uninvolved in the government issues. The southerners then opted for the secession as an option (Kelly2010). Land gained from the Louisiana Purchase and Mexican war saw the Americans posses vast tracks of lands. This led to the big debate as whether the new states acquired could be treated as slaves or Free states. The 1820 Missouri compromise solved the issue by proclaiming that slavery was illegal while other alternates suggested several awareness programs for the slaves as the federal government was to compensate the slave owners.

The south was left to rethink its alternatives on the issue of slavery where it picked on benefits versus cost in deciding the fight. (Michael 1996)Another conflict arose as to what would happen to the conquered lands after the war. The 1846 Wilmot Proviso by Wilmot David proposed that the land should be slave free a move strongly opposed in a debate. Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 that caused the freedom to have slaves or not in the two states led to a lot of blood shedding to the states.

The wrangles led to the south withdrawal from the government as they felt they were being ignored. The growth of the abolition movements by the northerner’s against slavery while proclaiming the negative impacts of slavery led to the increase in number of anti slavery supporters especially from the outside nations who sympathetically joined in the slavery abolition movement thus favoring the north against the south to the extent of supporting the south in war that eventually saw the south loose over the north. (Kelly 2010).

Though the victory of Lincoln in the elections saw the south in the state of South Carolina declare a secession thinking that Lincoln was who was a presidential candidate from the north was elected so as to favor the interests of the anti slavery people from the north thus he could not serve their interests . The southerners further thought that they could lose their land to the northern who were now in control of the whole state thus causing some men in the battle ground feign excuses to get back home and manage their possessions.

States like South Carolina stated the reason for secession being constitutional violation under Lincoln to which the Union saw as a form of political annexation against the presidency and the founding fathers view about America (Michael 1996). In conclusion the war that was sparked off by the issue of slavery in order to protect the supremacy of the Union constitution against the literally annexation of the United states by the South was won and the servitude done away with.

Remarkably, President Lincoln preserved the Union and established a better platform that allowed the integration of the economic value of the United States as one nation. References: Don E. and Virginia E. Fehrenbacher, editor, Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln: Letter from Charles Sumner to John Bright. August 5, 1862 McWhiney, G. (1984). Attack and Die: Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0817302298, 9780817302290 Stampp, K. (1981). The Imperiled Union: Essays on the Background of the Civil War.

Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0195029917, 9780195029918 Cornell University Institute. (2010). 13th Amendment. Legal Information Institute. http://topics. law. cornell. edu/constitution/amendmentxiii Michael B. (1996). Lincoln’s election and the south. Retrieved May 8, 2004 from http://www. h-net. org/~south/archives/threads/lincoln. html Kelly M. ( 2010)Top Five Causes of the Civil War Leading up to Secession and the Civil War Retrieved May 8, 2004 from http://americanhistory. about. com/od/civilwarmenu/a/cause_civil_war. htm

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