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Friday, August 9, 2019

Identify the main cause , both direct and indirect of the civil war Research Paper

Identify the main cause , both direct and indirect of the civil war. Explain how they led to the civil war. What was the most im - Research Paper Example In the years before the Civil War all the issues were centered on the issue of slavery. This started with the debates made on the three-fifths clause on the Constitutional Convention of 1787. It further proceeded with the Compromise of 1820, the anti-slavery Gag Rule, the Nullification Crisis, and finally the Compromise of 1850. In the first half of the nineteenth century slavery was supported by the Southern politicians. They maintained the control of the federal government. Though they had most of their Presidents hailing from the South, they were very serious about maintaining a balance of power in the Senate. New states joined the Union and several compromises appeared to keep an equal number of free and slave states. In 1820, Missouri joined as a slave state and Maine came as a free state. The balance got disrupted in 1850 as Southerners allowed California to come as a free state in return for laws upholding slavery. The balance was later disturbed with the joining of free Orego n and Minnesota. The increase of the gap between free and slave state illustrates the changes happening in each region. When South, with a slow population growth, adopted an agrarian plantation economy, North adopted industrialization. They had large urban areas, with large infrastructures. They witnessed increased birth rates and a large inflow of European immigrants. The increase in population made South to keep a balance in the government. This lead to the addition of several free states. An anti-slavery president was also appointed. The political issue that ultimately took the nation towards the war was nothing but slavery in the western territories acquired during the Mexican-American War. The same case was earlier considered in 1820, when slavery was permitted in the Southern border of Missouri. Rep. David Wilmot tried to prevent slavery as he brought the Wilmot Proviso in Congress. After long debate it got defeated. Attempts were made to solve the issue, but failed. The issue appeared again in 1854 with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Kansas-Nebraska Act resulted in an arrival of pro- and anti-slavery forces into Kansas. Free Staters and Border Ruffians continued open violence for few years. Even though the pro-slavery forces in Missouri influenced the elections, the President Buchanan accepted the Lecompton Constitution. Though he put it before Congress for Statehood, they rejected it. Congress ordered fresh election. The anti-slavery Wyandotte Constitution got it appeal from Congress in 1859. The fight in Kansas increased the problems between South and North. As the South understood that the control of the government was getting weak, it considered the rights arguments of the states to protect slavery. According to Southerners, federal government has no rights to interfere in the rights of the slaveholders and take their property into a new territory as per the tenth Amendment. They said that government should not interfere with slavery. The issue of slavery got worsened by the coming of the Abolitionist movement in the 1820s and 1830s. Adherents said that slavery is not just a social evil, it is rather a practice which is morally wrong. Abolitionists cried for the freedom of the slaves. They campaigned for anti-slavery causes and demanded the abolition of slavery. They supported anti-slavery caus

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