Causes

=CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR = After the Constitution was adopted in 1789, creating one nation, differences between the states were worked out through compromises. By 1861 the following differences between the Northern States (which include the Mid-western and Western States) and the Southern States had become so great that compromise would no longer work. Thus, a conflict started within our nation that was called the Civil War.

Tariffs- For more than 40 years, arguments between the North and South had been growing. One of these quarrels was about taxes paid on goods brought into this country from foreign countries. This kind of tax is called a tariff. In 1828, Northern businessmen urged passage of the "Tariff Act". The purpose of the law was to encourage the manufacture of products in the United States, and to encourage the South to buy these products from the North instead of from Europe or pay more to get goods from the North. Either way, the Southern people were forced to pay more because of the efforts of Northern businessmen. Though most tariff laws had been changed by the time of the Civil War, the Southern people still remembered how they had been treated by the Northern people, especially the business class.

States Rights- In the years before the Civil War, the balance of political power in the Federal Government, centered in Washington, D.C., was changing. The Northern and Mid-Western States were becoming more and more powerful as their population increased. This meant that the Southern States were losing political power in the Federal government and southern politicians felt that their interests were not being served. Westward expansion was also considered a risk to southern interests, as Federal authority appeared to subdue the desires of people living in those territorial states. Just as the original thirteen colonies fought for independence almost 90 years earlier, southern states felt a growing need for freedom from the central Federal government. They felt that each state should make its own laws and govern itself without Federal interference. This issue was called "States Rights". Some Southern States wanted to secede, or break away, from the United States of America and govern themselves and it was a hot issue right up to the presidential elections in 1860.

Slavery- Another quarrel between the North and the South, and perhaps the most emotional one, was over the issue of slavery. Agriculture was the South’s primary industry and cotton the primary farm product. Not having the use of machines, it took a great amount of human labor to pick cotton. A large number of slaves were used to provide labor. Many slaves were also used to provide labor for the various household chores that needed to be done. Many Northerners thought that owning slaves was wrong, for any reason and they loudly disagreed with the South’s laws and beliefs concerning slavery. Yet slavery had been a part of the American way of life for over 200 years. The Constitution of the United States of America guaranteed the right to own property and protected it against seizure, or take-over. A slave was property in the eyes of many. The people of the Southern States did not like the Northern people telling them that owning a slave was a great wrong and were disappointed that northern governments did not pursue, capture, and return fugitive slaves who escaped to the North despite the passage of a Federal law in 1850. A person believed that slavery was either right or wrong, so how could two people arguing over such an issue compromise?

Election of Abraham Lincoln- Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States in 1860. He vowed to keep the country united and the new western territories free from slavery. Despite Lincoln’s promise to not interfere with slavery in the South, many Southerners were afraid that he was not sympathetic to their way of life and would not treat them fairly. Lincoln’s personal and political views of slavery were evolving, but at this point he was primarily concerned with keeping the United States together as one nation.

Secession- South Carolina was the first state to secede, or break away, from the United States soon after the election of Abraham Lincoln. Six other states quickly followed and also seceded. These states joined together and formed a new nation which they named the Confederate States of America and Jefferson Davis was elected the Confederacy's first president. On April 12, 1861 the Confederate States of America bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina, which was held by Federal (Union) troops and flew the United States flag. As open conflict increased, other states seceded and joined the Confederacy. The fighting of the Civil War had begun.