Political Changes In The North And South After The Civil War

The Northern and Southern parts of the United States urbanized along different lines. The South continued to be a primarily agricultural economy while the North became further industrialized with each passing day. With these major changes happening in the economy different group cultures and political values came about. The Civil War was mainly started by the sectional tension from the north and south, the Missouri Compromise, the removal of Texas, and politics of slavery.
The prominent problem that was responsible for the disruption of the union, nonetheless, was the dispute over the prospect of slavery. That quarrel led to secession, and secession issued a war in which the Northern and Western states and territories fought to conserve the
Union. The South, however, battled to launch Southern sovereignty as a new confederation of states under its own laws. The south, being a mainly agrarian area exercised slaves to tend its large cotton plantations and do whatever else there owners asked them too. Slavery was a major factor into the Southern economy although only a moderately small fraction of the population essentially owned slaves. Slaves were treated just like animals or things in the south there owners could rent them or trade them or even sell them to pay debts, even though the southerners believed slaves were considered a part of their family and supposedly treated them as such. Owning slaves in the south was seen as a powerful thing there, in fact the more slaves you owned the more respect one would receive from their peers. The owning of slaves also contributed to societal position, and slaves, as the possessions of men and plantations, signifies the prime part of the region’s individual and commercial wealth. As cotton and property prices declined, the price of slaves skyrocketed. While the South was trying to buy up as many slaves as it could the north was progressively abolishing slavery one by one. The north was able to do so mainly due to the steady flow of immigrant workers that had been entering the country. This assured the North an equipped team of laborers, several of whom could be hired at low wages, withdrawing the necessitate to adhere to the foundation of slavery. The Second Great Awakening took place in both the north and the south, but the primary difference was seen in the north.
During this time the north went through a market and religious revolution. The market changed in the northeast from a rural one to an industrialized one, starting the first industrial revolution in the United States. Many changes happened what was once apprenterships now became wage earning jobs; meaning that men used to practice under a master of the job they wanted to have, to learn their skill set now men are taking jobs instead to earn more money for their families. What was once the quite rural countryside quickly turned into urban centers; they were calling these changes “internal improvements.” This time period brought about the discovery of the middle class or working class, people who weren’t seen as poor or rich they were considered comfortable. The religious reform brought about the ideas of self-control and anti-materialism meaning that one would only own what one needed. It brought about a new work ethic based on Christianity, and it brought about the making of the middle class. Meanwhile, in the south, nothing really changed. They had no market revolution, no middle or working class, and no reform. There awakening reinforced southern paternalism, a household economy, and family. The south believed strongly that the man was the head of the household and that there slaves were part of that family and were to be treated as such. They felt
that women should stay home and take care of the household while the men went out and worked, mainly on cotton plantations. The price of cotton highly dictated southern policies. The battles between the Democratic Party and the Whig party helped bring about the Civil War. The Whigs formed in resistance to Andrew Jackson, who they alleged was determined to abolish American business and manufacturing. The Whigs portrayed on a Jeffersonian belief of conciliation and stability in government, national unity, territorial expansion, and funding for a nationwide transportation system and domestic manufacturing, they were led by Henry Clay and John Adams. Clay’s dream of the "American System" was renowned by the Whigs. This system encouraged hasty financial and manufacturing development. They required support from the government for a rationalized, market-oriented economy. With that being said, Whigs wanted to stimulate quicker industrialization through the use of things such as high tariffs, a business-oriented money source built on a nationwide bank, and a dynamic platform of government sponsored internal enhancements. Whigs strongly believed in the significance of education to help shape contemporary republican residents, hence supporting public schools. One of the crucial fights between Democrats and Whigs was due to California's admission to the union as a free state, which would ruin the sectional equilibrium of power among free and slave states in Congress.
The outcome of such was a laborious legislative encounter amongst Southern and Northern councils, the South claimed that Congress as well as the states did not require the authority to constitute against the territorial expansion of slavery. Recognizing that this sectional split could tear apart the country, Whigs and Democrats decided to come to an agreement that they felt would help avoid secession. The resulting Compromise of 1850 accepted California to be acknowledged as a free state, but strengthened the fugitive slave law and made no requirements for how other territories might address the slavery issue. This causing the Whigs to be incapable of successfully addressing the slavery issue after 1850. Their southern affiliates virtually all possessed slaves, though the northeastern Whigs represented entrepreneurs who respected national unity and a national economic system but really could care less about slavery. Unfortunately, there was no compromise that could keep the Whigs amalgamated, causing the party to fall apart in the
1850s. In the 1830’s, President Andrew Jackson led to the formation of The Democratic Party. It was formed on the domestic problems of banking and tariffs, which much of Jackson’s term was overtaken with. American extension to new farm lands and the attainment of new territories was preferred by the Democrats. Consequently, The Mexican War and President Polk were supported by the Democrats. Democrats were also opposed to elites, manufacturers, and the Bank of the United States, which they alleged would build up commerce at the expense of the farmers. Nonetheless, like the Whigs, Democrats were separated along sectional lines on the issue of slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska act was pushed through congress, by Senator Stephen Douglas in 1854. Doing so permitted the development of slavery into those territories. This stimulated a readjustment in political party lines and voters, including the end of the Whigs. Numerous northern Democrats assembled to the newly formed Republican Party, while the Southern, proslavery Democrats started the Southern Democratic Party. Briefly, the Democrats came to be almost exclusively a southern party platform, which caused its northern followers who resisted the southern proslavery political plan to come to be isolated. The outcome of this harsh split in the Democratic Party after 1854 was that Democrats were unable to rally an active, united political platform in order to stop the Republicans from attaining a majority in the Electoral College. This started the course for the ultimate election of Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln in 1860.