Causes of the American Civil War

There was no singular cause of the American Civil War. In fact, it was rather difficult to compose a list of just ten. This month we are going to look at ten issues that helped throw the melting pot of society known as the United States into two distinct and confrontational sections. In short, what changed "e pluribus unum" into "us versus them."

1. Territorial Expansion -- Less than a million square miles in 1800, the United States nearly doubled with the Louisiana Purchase(1803) and almost doubled again following the war with Mexico(1846-48). Citizens North and South took a "manifest destiny" approach to the continent. With little to no regard for holdings from native Americans, British, or French claims, the expanding population took a "winner take all" approach to the land as the moved west. This attitude turned to warfare as early as 1854 with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This "popular sovereignty" approach led to the gathering of "Jayhawkers" and "Bushwhackers" battling it out both politically and physically before the start of the civil war. During the presidency of James K. Polk(1845-1849) the United States acquired more than five hundred thousand square miles of territory-- more than the land area of France, Italy, and Germany combined.

2. Southern Dependence on Slavery-- History books will tell you "slavery caused the civil war." This article is much to small to debate the rights and wrongs of slavery but we will look at some of the facts. Slavery provided the south with a third of its wealth, over half of its cheap labor force, and its primary vehicle for economic growth. The antislavery movement threatened to destroy this ages old industry. With a nation wide ban on slavery, southern industries would cease to exist. The United States in 1860: Total value of all capital investments in manufacturing = one billion dollars in gold. Total value of all capital investments in slaves = two billion dollars in gold.

3. Growing Disparity in Population--  With a 1860 population of 32 million people, more than 22 million in free states, fewer than 10 million in slave states with 4 million of those being the slaves, the congressional representation was highly northern biased. Even with the constitutional measure of a slave as three-fifths of a person, Pennsylvania and New York had more seats in Congress than Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas combined. Early on Southern lawmakers realized that to be as effective in national politics as they had been in earlier days, they would have to rely on concessions over consensus. In 1860 the largest city in the United States was New York, with nearly one million inhabitants. The twenty-seventh largest city was Richmond VA with thirty-seven thousand inhabitants.

4. Poor Leadership-- Prominent politicians of the time exaggerated differences. Antislavery, proslavery, Unionist, and state's rights spokesmen opted for confrontation over cooperation. Advocates of compromise often lacked the ingenuity to offer anything constructive. The best example of this poor leadership would lie within the oval office. Between 1836 and the start of the war, all occupants were one-term presidents. Unable or unwilling to fully address the growing differences between the North and South, incumbents lost reelection and, in some cases, failed to be re-nominated. There may have been one exception to this pattern, Zachary Taylor(1848) was able to hold the union together with threat of a hangman's noose. Taylor was removed from office by his death in 1850. While a colonel in the U.S. Army, Zachary Taylor initially forbade his daughter to marry one of his officers, a lieutenant by the name of Jefferson Davis.

5. The Ascendance of a Sectional Party-- In 1854 a new party emerged onto the political scene. Dedicated to internal improvements, protective tariffs, and the containment of slavery, the Republican Party grew from an idea to a political power in just two years. Yet the party existed almost exclusively in and catered to the North. Southern newspapers and lawmakers threatened a wave of secession in 1856 if John Fremont, a republican, was elected. Instead Democrat James Buchanan won. Four years later, following the split of the Democrat Party between Breckinridge and Douglas, the Republican Party put its first member in the white house. Four days later, South Carolina called for a secession convention. Before settling on the title Republicans, the founders of the fledgling party called themselves the Independent Party, the Anti-Nebraska Party, and the People's Party.

6. Northern Industrialization-- When steam was harnessed, factories began to flourish. Inventions came from names such as Morse, Colt, Goodyear, McCormick, Fulton, and Singer. Yet most of this industrialization took place in Northern states, and by 1860 the resulting disparity was striking. For every engineer in the south, there were six in the north. For every ship constructed in Southern ports, the North made ten. Free states milled seventeen times as much cotton, mined twenty times the amount of pig iron, produced thirty times the amount of boots and shoes, and manufactured thirty-two times the amount of firearms as slave states. The deep south's wise investment was cotton, feeding the hungry mills of the north with the most profitable crop in the United States. In turn, much of the North's capital went into factories, while most of the South's money went into the fields. In 1860 Massachusetts produced more manufactured goods than the entire deep south.

7. The Moral Debate over Slavery-- For more than 200 years whites generally treated slavery in North America as an uncomfortable predicament, something to be tolerated but not spoken of in mixed company. That all changed in 1831 when abolitionist William L. Garrison publically repudiated slave owners as barbaric tyrants. Nat Turner, a slave, led one of the bloodiest slave uprisings in Southern history that same year. In print, politics, and the pulpit, both sides used ethics, biology, the Bible, economics, and the Declaration of Independence to defend their respective positions. Slavery advocates appeared as a cohesive "slavocracy" controlling not only four million slaves but also the nation as a whole. Likewise, many viewed abolitionists as wild-eyed radicals willing to break the law and entice riots whenever and wherever they could. this mutual suspicion only worsened with an 1857 Supreme Court Dred Scott Decision and the 1859 arsenal raid at Harpers Ferry involving John Brown. In 1837 Presbyterians split into two sects over slavery, as did the Methodists in 1844 and the Baptists in 1845.

8. The Growth of Southern Nationalism Through "State's Rights"-- In existence since the Federalist versus Anti-federalist contest over the U.S. Constitution, the term achieved widespread popularity in 1828 through 1832 when Congress issued excessively high import tariffs against the wishes of several Southern sates. The "state's rights" card became a popular southern response to any unpopular national policy. A "taxation without representation" battle repeating itself. Southern lawmakers called for local supremacy over tariffs, slavery, and control of territories but called for a strong national government to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law, annex Texas, and possibly engage in a war with Mexico. The call of "state's rights" unified an otherwise divisive South. Landed landowners and the landless, bankers and the impoverished, slave owners and sharecroppers coming together with a platform against growing Northern influence. In 1860, laws concerning marriage, divorce, conscription, public educated, voting, printing paper money, property rights, professional licensing, and slavery were decided at the state level.

9. Intrusion of Slavery into Free States -- Two  major laws involving slavery helped start the civil war. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law and the 1857 Dred Scott decision. The former stems from a law that had been in place since the writing of the Constitution. It stipulates that any black in a free state could be accused of being a fugitive slave. U.S. marshals were obligated to assist in searching for the accused. Expenses for capturing and returning slaves were borne by the U.S. Treasury. Allowed to remove "property" from free states by ways of the Fugitive Slave Law, slave owners were also able to bring their "property" into free states after the Dred Scott decision. The Supreme Court dismissed Scott's case due to the fact that being a slave, Scott was not a citizen and therefore unable to bring a case the federal court. Chief Justice Roger Taney stated African Americans were "so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." Further the court declared that the 1820 Missouri Compromise - which forbade slavery west of Missouri and north of 36°30' latitude - was unconstitutional, as it restricted the right of property. In short, the Supreme Court curtailed free states' rights and permitted slave owners to take their slaves anywhere they wished. Many Northerners began to suspect states' rights only meant "slave states' rights." On March 4, 1861 Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated the sixteenth president of the United States. He was sworn in by the man who rendered the Dred Scott Decision, Chief Justice Roger Taney- Southerner, former slave owner, and defender of southern states' rights.

10. The Growth of Northern Nationalism through "Union" -- As with sates' rights in the South, a mythical ideal of "Union" began to emerge in the North. The Union represented free labor,  public education, and federal funding for public works such as canals and railroads. If the South could celebrate a world of aristocracy and agriculture (supported by slavery) the North could brag about populism and progress (supported by seventy-hour workweeks and child labor) Central to the ideology of the Union was the underlying principle of democracy. Pointing to the Constitution's Preamble, Northerners began to see themselves as "We the people" pitted against a South that appeared unwilling to "form a more perfect Union." In 1864, Lincoln officially ran for the presidency as a member of the National Union Party, a coalition party of Republicans and War Democrats.

The author of this section would appreciate any feedback you can offer. To contact him, email sgtslaten@kingsbattery.com