Preview

The Civil War Was Inevitable

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
399 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Civil War Was Inevitable
On April 11, 1861 the Civil War began, and was fought between the Union and the Confederate States of America. Should it have happened? A lot of people believe the Civil War was inevitable, but was it?
In order for the North and South to move forward as one country, they had to settle their differences. Within six months of Lincoln’s election in 1860 as President of the United States, several states had seceded from the Union, and the American Civil War had begun. Lincoln was anti-slavery, and therefore, it seemed to the Southern slave owners that he was also anti-South. Lincoln believed that in order to save the union, they had to try to bring back the Confederate states, but the South believed they had the right to leave the Union and fight

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    When Abraham Lincoln was elected president and vowed to abolish slavery, he promised that he had “no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists” (Source C). However, South Carolina did not believe in his ideas of slavery and chose to secede on December 20, 1860 along with six other states, which are Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. They seceded because the secessionists thought that the new Republican administration would subvert the right of southern slaveholders to carry their human property into the territories (pg. 407), but they did not believe that Lincoln would not interfere with slavery where it already existed. Due to the strong belief that…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conflict between the North and South was inevitable by the time Lincoln gave his first inaugural address because several Southern states had seceded from the union and because Lincoln would not have maintained the status quo for long. For a good two decades, the United States had been experiencing more and more turmoil over slavery. The Republican North was emphatically against slavery, viewing it as an evil abomination, while the Democratic South viewed it as integral to the Southern tradition. Northerners bannered together in the name of justice, while Southerners rallied to preserve their way of life. Feeling that their entire culture was gravely threatened, Southerners became more and more organized and militant, culminating in South Carolina’s secession from the United States of America on December 20, 1860.…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The election of Abraham Lincoln terrified the southern states. Southerners new that Lincoln favored abolition and he desired to rule against slavery in the western territories. There was a fear that Lincoln would eventually outlaw slavery for good. Therefore, the southern way of life would forever be changed. The southern states came together and decided the best solution would be to secede from the union.…

    • 348 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lincoln rejected the idea of secession and only a month after becoming the president, he lead the Civil War against the Southern states to preserve the Union and to spread equality and democracy. The Civil War is the bloodiest conflict that America has ever endured there was over 600,000 dead Americans in five years. Lincoln had assigned Ulysses Grant to lead the Northern armies as a ruthless warrior and an exceptional strategist. In 1862, Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation, which granted freedom to slaves who were in the South meaning in the areas that were rebelling against his government and did not recognize his authority. This was the turning point where the war wasn’t only to create one Union but also to end slavery all around the nation.…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What Were Lincoln's Goals

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages

    For Lincoln the South had broken covenant and started an insurrection. In essence, Lincoln, like George Washington in the Whiskey Rebellion or Lyndon Johnson in the late 1960s, brought unification to all US citizens; Northerners and Southerners But Lincoln’s goal was not galvanized by equality, though he did detest slavery, Blacks were (at least at first) a secondary issue. Blacks were mobilized as a military need. Emancipation, Lincoln saw, would further undermine the Confederacy while providing the Union with a new source of manpower to crush the rebellion. Lincoln goal was to change the government from states to a union in order to keep the United States from dissolving (Wills 161).…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The original seceding states of the Confederacy consisted of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. The people of these states saw themselves extremely different than that of the northern states both politically and culturally, and felt continuous pressure from the population dominating in the northern states to conform to northern ideals. It seemed the only and best option to keep the southern way of life was to become an independent Confederate nation. That idea to become a separate nation was not a sudden idea when Lincoln came into office; it was simply not recognized by previous presidents, which would allow for the issue to hit its climax when he was elected. By the time Lincoln came into office, talks of revolution were already at its tipping point, but as stated by Lincoln, “Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.” Feeling sympathy and the same operation as the seceding states Virginia, North Carolina,…

    • 1651 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United States of America was filled with tension because of numerous events. In the day that Abraham Lincoln became president, Southern states seceded. To make the situation even worse, the Civil War took place to resolve this conflict between the South and the North. President Lincoln was left with the trust to unite the Confederacy and the Union once again. President Lincoln’s duty of preserving the Union was more important to him than to give the slaves freedom because he just wanted to use the African-Americans for military force, political power, and to end the Civil War.…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "From 1861 and 1865 the United States engaged in a civil war. Tensions between the Anti-Slavery Northern states and the pro-slavery Southern states erupted into a Civil War after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. " The divided states, that of the North and South, fought against each other, to finally end the dispute whether to accept or abolish slavery. Abraham Lincoln was the leader for the North side and Stonewall Jackson was the leader for the South.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Lincoln's letter to Horace Greeley he said "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery." On December 20, 1860 the South seceded from the Union before Lincoln addressed his view on slavery for fear of losing it. This brought tension between the North and South and was one of the reasons the civil war began. "What I do about slavery and the colored race I do because I believe it help to save this Union." Lincoln makes it clear that if he needs to emancipate the slaves in order to save the Union he will do…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If you were in the situation that our nation was becoming divided. The south wanted there to be slaves for labor. The north did not want slavery because they thought people were all equal. The civil war was a very bloody war and over 625,000 people died and a lot more were injured. (Ron Paul Video)Could the Civil War Have Been Avoided?…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The North fought for moral reasons concerning slavery while the South fought to protect their right to own slaves. Lincoln believed slavery went against the principle that “all men are created equal.” He believed the act of slavery was “immoral” but he waited to issue an anti-slavery proclamation until he could gain support from the public. After the Union won the Battle of Antietam, in September 1862, Lincoln made the announcement to his cabinet that he would issue an emancipation proclamation. The so-called border states would be exempt for having slaveholders and remaining loyal to the Union.…

    • 1574 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why The Civil War Began

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Civil war began in April of 1861. There were many reasons the Civil War began. For example, slavery was one of the reasons. Another reason was that the South wanted to secede from the United States because they believed more in state’s rights rather than federal rights. These are two of the main reasons the Civil War began.…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    2) I think the Civil War was inevitable because of the federal government’s treatment and sometimes babying of the South. As stated earlier, every time the South wanted something (increased federal protection of slavery, expansion of slavery. etc.) or were against a law passed (Tariff – Nullification Crisis of 1832) their go-to method of getting their way was to threaten secession from the union. I think the fact that the federal government sometimes entertained them was what made the South so bold into thinking that they could pull that card if the North was not behaving in the way that they wanted them to in order to get what they wanted.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Civil War was fought between the Northern and Southern states of of America. Was the Civil War inevitable? It was a conflict bound to happen due to the differences between the North and South’s views on slavery, society, and politics. The South wanted their independence and freedom from the North, while the North wanted unity.…

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mrs. I Can Do It

    • 4811 Words
    • 20 Pages

    The American Civil War was a result of the northern and southern having completely different views on states being able to rule themselves. The election of Abraham Lincoln led many southern states to secede from the Union. The South was strongly opposed to Lincoln and his policies. “Lincoln won not a single electoral vote in the South, and his Republican Party had vowed to prevent the extension of slavery.” 1 South Carolina was the first states to secede from the Union and gradually more and more southern states followed. Jefferson Davis emerged as the President of the Confederacy while Lincoln was President of the Union. As war broke out between the North and South, there were some key reasons why the North was able to defeat the South.…

    • 4811 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Good Essays