The Civil War and The North & South

Between 1800 and 1861, the North and the South had become two different societies. This paper considers geography, economics, politics and governmental actions that led to the inevitability of the Civil War.

From the implementation of the Constitution of the United States, States held the belief that they should be able to decide what type life they should live under state law in accordance with the wishes of the state's populace, and that the federal government should not interfere. There was more loyalty towards one's state than to the federal government. This was true for both those living in the North and in the South(Perman, 18).

During the first half of the 19th Century, zealous firebrands of North and South broadcast abuse on economics, politics, and morality of the other until no reasoning between them could be heard. History books say the war began April 12, 1861, when forces under Confederate General Pierre Beauregard fired on Ft. Sumter in Charleston, SC. In reality, the war between the beliefs of the North and the South began many years prior to this date. Ft. Sumter was the opening of Pandora=s box (Levine, Foner, 12).

At the beginning of the United States in 1789, the South was an important part of the country, which was already different from the mid-Atlantic states and New England due to the differences in colonial immigration patterns and the economic domi

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oclamation warning that secession and disunion by armed force was an act of treason and would be dealt with as such (Perman, 137). In 1849, the Senate was balanced with 15 free states and 15 slave states. California wanted to enter the Union as a free state, which would destroy that balance. After long and bitter debates, the Compromise of 1850 emerged and California entered the Union as a free state; the South got a tougher fugitiveslave law in return. New Mexico and Utah gained territorial status with the right to decide the question of slavery on their soil, whereas another law forbade the slave trade in the District of Columbia. The conflict of principles remained. For the South, it was not that entities were to have slavery, but that they had the "right" to have slavery. Slaves were considered property, and the South believed that the Federal government should not by law, dictate what property one can or cannot own (Levine, Foner, 132). The South was continuously on the defensive. In 1854, Congress passed the KansasNebraska Act that wiped out the old Missouri Compromise line and opened more of the West to slavery. The new Republican Party dedicated itself to repeal this law and to place limits on the spread of slavery.
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Approximate Word count = 1930
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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