Civil War

Politics of the Civil War
The Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in American history claiming the lives of over 600,000 citizens and causing destruction, dismay and civic unrest. But how many people know the true cause of the war? What were the political arguments and mindsets that caused such a catastrophe?
Many people believe that slavery was the cause of the war. However that is not entirely true slavery was the cause of the succession but not the cause of the war. The wars itself was a matter of sovereignty or states’ rights one of which being whether or not states had the right to withdraw from the United States.
The north viewed the succession as an act of treason. The north’s argument was based on *article VI of the constitution. This states that the federal government holds power over the independent states. Furthermore *article I of the same constitution states that, states cannot enter in to treaties, coin money, raise armies, and perform a number of other tasks that the federal government has the freedom to do.

So what reasons would cause the south to go against the constitution and break off from the United States? Well, after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 South Carolina and several other Deep South feared that Lincoln would remove their right to own slaves. So the southern states declared their secession on the grounds that:
- The northern states were uncooperative with the fugitive slave clause of the U.S. Constitution,
- The U.S. government had no right to restrict property rights (and, by that, the South meant slave-owner rights) in the new territories, and
- The growing power of the North in the U.S. government imperiled the interests of the South.
Whether or not there reasons where just is not for me to say.
In the end the north was victorious. After 4 years of fighting a battalion of union solders lead by General Grant captured southern general Lee forcing him to surrender on April 7 1865. By this time over 600,000 American had lost their lives and their homes. It was a tragedy of grand proportions.




* Article I The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow money on the credit of the United States; To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes; To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures; To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States; to establish post offices and post roads; To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries; To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations; To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water; To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; To provide and maintain a navy; To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces; To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.


* Article VI of the United States Constitution: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.


Information from – Wikipedia