DBQ Civil War

Although events leading up to the Civil War had been going on for some years, the Civil War was not inevitable; the war was the result of extremism and failures in leadership of both the North and the South. A widespread of political, social, and economic factors was all contributors to the splitting of the North and South. State rights, controversy over slavery, and differences in economic systems pushed the North and South into a bloody battle. The Civil War started due to the differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in territories that were not states yet. The North was known for their industries at the time. The population was much larger when compared to the South. Their political views were mostly republican. Most Northerners were opposed to the slavery that was being established in the South. However, the South viewed slaves as an economic instrument. The South was based on agriculture and produced much of the nations staple crops and cotton. Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States of the time. However, to the southerners they looked to Jefferson Davis. Fort Sumpter was the starting point of the hostilities between North and South. The question of state rights was a major question that sparked the Civil War. The North and South viewed each other as two different kinds of people. Stephen Douglas said “Our fathers knew, when they made the government, that the laws and institutions which were all adapted to the green mountains of Vermont, were unsuited to the rice plantations of South Carolina” (Document 5). This was the view of southern plantation owners. They believed the laws fit Northerners, not Southerners. Therefore they made their own rules and treated themselves as individual nations, which then turned into the Confederacy. “Those states have assumed the right of deciding…and have denied the rights of property established in fifth teen of the states and recognized by the