Video: The causes of the Civil War and its cost to a young nation. More from Wes about the causes of the Civil War. What led to the outbreak of the bloodiest conflict in the history of North America? A common explanation is that the Civil War was fought over the moral issue of slavery. In fact, it was the economics of slavery and political control of that system that was central to the conflict. A key issue was states' rights. The Southern states wanted to assert their authority over the federal government so they could abolish federal laws they didn't support, especially laws interfering with the South's right to keep slaves and take them wherever they wished. Another factor was territorial expansion. The South wished to take slavery into the western territories, while the North was committed to keeping them open to white labor alone. Meanwhile, the newly formed Republican party, whose members were strongly opposed to the westward expansion of slavery into new states, was gaining prominence. The election of a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, as President in 1860 sealed the deal. His victory, without a single Southern electoral vote, was a clear signal to the Southern states that they had lost all influence. Feeling excluded from the political system, they turned to the only alternative they believed was left to them: secession, a political decision that led directly to war.
Video: The causes of the Civil War and its cost to a young nation.
Article
 South Carolina Historical Society
South Carolina and State Sovereignty
South Carolina had theatened secession before 1860. After the ratification of the US Constitution, fears grew in the South over time of a strong central government. Charles Pinckney, a vocal critic of the Articles of Confederation and contributor to the US Constitution, served in the House of Representatives from 1819-21. He warned that the economic interests of North and South were at odds. He further believed that slavery was the only question that could separate the Union. He stated that a consequence of the Missouri Compromise “may be the division of this union and a civil war.” The congressional debate over federal taxes on imported manufactured goods showed the division between North and South. Designed to protect American manufacturing based in New England, southern planters felt the tariff posed an unfair tax burden on them as they imported many manufactured goods. Citing states rights doctrine, South Carolina voted to nullify the federal tariffs of 1828 and 1832. During the crisis, Vice President John C. Calhoun broke with President Andrew Jackson and resigned his office to organize southern resistance. The President sent troops to the federal forts in Charleston Harbor to enforce collection of the tariff. Calling for secession, the South Carolina legislature readied the state militia. The crisis was defused in 1833 by a compromise tariff, but the state had learned that cries of disunion could be an effective political weapon. While white South Carolinians remained vigilant to threats to slavery and continued to advance a doctrine of state sovereignty under the leadership of Senator John C. Calhoun, there was little popular support for secession during the 1830s and 1840s. The escalating controversy over the expansion of slavery into the territory acquired from Mexico prompted South Carolina's secession crisis of 1850 - 51. The Compromise of 1850 and the lack of broad-based support for secession in the South ended this crisis, but secessionists awaited their next opportunity. The election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860 fulfilled their dreams of a republic for slaveholders.
Secession and Path to War
The South Carolina General Assembly called for a convention to consider secession following news of Lincoln's victory. The 169 delegates convened at South Carolina Institute Hall in Charleston on December 20. The body included four former governors, three future governors, four former US senators, and five former US congressmen. One hundred and fifty-three of the 169 delegates held slaves in 1860. Approximately 60% of the convention, or 104 members, owned as many as 20 enslaved people or more. Seventy members held 50 slaves or more; and 27 delegates, or 16% of the convention, held 100 slaves or more. The 169 delegates were primarily wealthy, middle-aged, slaveholding, native-born planters and lawyers. They voted uanimously to secede from the federal Union. Charlestonians celebrated with bonfires, parades, and the ringing of church bells. Just four days after secession, South Carolina issued their “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union.” The document offered a legal justification for secession and discussed how the federal government had failed to uphold its constitutional obligations to South Carolina. South Carolina’s declaration argued that the non-slaveholding states had “denounced as sinful the institution of slavery” and had “encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.” The document then indirectly referenced the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency as a contributing factor: “A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery.” According to South Carolina’s declaration, secession occurred because of threats, both real and perceived, to the institution of slavery. Fire Eaters from South Carolina traveled throughout the South, acting as secession commissioners, to encourage other states to secede as well. South Carolina played an active role in the secession of additional states and the creation of the Confederate States of America.
Last updated: March 30, 2021
Library of Congress It was just a month after Abraham Lincoln's winning of the White House in November 1860 when the frayed ties holding the country together finally broke loose. On December 20, increasingly angered by the fight over slavery and incensed over the election of an anti-slavery president, South Carolina defiantly declared that it was leaving the Union. Six more states followed a month later and, by June, a total of 11 southern states were no longer part of the country. The secessionists claimed that - according to the Constitution - they had every right to leave the Union, but Lincoln vehemently refuted that assertion. He gave several reasons, among them his belief that secession was unlawful, the fact that states were physically unable to separate, his fears that secession would cause the weakened government to descend into anarchy, and his steadfast conviction that all Americans should be friends towards one another, rather than enemies. But it may have been the last point that he considered the most important to his argument: Secession would destroy the only democracy in existence and prove for all time - to both future Americans and the world - that a government of the people could not survive. "Is there, in all republics, this inherent and fatal weakness? Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?" asked Lincoln of Congress on July 4, 1861. He had good reason to raise the question, for if you traveled the earth in 1860 and visited every continent and nation, you would have found many examples of monarchies, dictatorships, and other types of authoritarian rule. But all of the world over, you would have found only one major democracy: the United States of America. Democracy had been attempted in only one other nation during the 18th century - France - and the results not been successful. With its citizens fonder of voting through the guillotine than the ballot box, France's radical experiment in self-government did not last long, and when Napoleon rose from the ashes of the disaster and went on a quest to conquer all of Europe, monarchy supporters felt thoroughly vindicated. Yet the United States' seemingly successful democratic rule remained a pesky thorn in their side. After all, those wishing for more political freedom could still point across the ocean and say, "It works there. Why can't we try it here"? With the dissolution of the United States in 1860, however, it appeared that the thorn was finally being removed. Monarchists were thrilled and many even held parties celebrating the end of democracy. Lincoln understood this well, so when he described America as "the world's last best hope," the words were not idle ones. Lincoln truly believed that if the Civil War was lost, it would not only have been the end of his political career, that of his party, or even that of his nation - it would have forever ended the hope of humankind everywhere for a "government of the people, by the people, for the people." |
States that seceded felt that the government was interfering with their:
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