How Did The Republican Party Cause The Civil War?

By the middle of the nineteenth century, sectional tension in America had grown to enormous proportions. In 1855, delegates from the state of Pennsylvania met in Pittsburgh, in an effort to address these growing conflicts between the northern and southern portions of the nation. This group and their opinions grew to be called the Republican Party. The first Republican National Convention was held in Philadelphia the next year. As a party, the Republicans opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise as well as the extension of slavery into the western territories. They supported the concept of admitting Kansas as a free state, and hoped to restore the nation to the principles and standards of Washington and Jefferson. The emergence of the Republican Party was a primary cause of the Civil War through its opposition to the repealing of the Missouri Compromise, sectional bias, and nomination of Abraham Lincoln for the Presidential Election of 1860. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, not daring to upset the balance between the total number of states with either stance. This law also forbade the extension of slavery into any area north of the 36°30′ latitude line in the
The party was based in the north, and consisted only of Northerners. This division of political beliefs across the nation, through its segregation of opinions by region, provided immense opportunity for the sparking of a civil war. As the Republicans quickly gained vast Northern support, the South began to express their disapproval. After the Election of 1856, though the Republicans did not win, “The majority of the Southern slave states were publicly threatening secession if the Republicans won the presidency” (Republican Party Founded 1). Sectional tension grew even more rapidly than before, eventually reaching its fatal peak come the Election of