The Battle for States Rights- The First True Battle of the American Civil War People like to simplify things. It’s simply human nature to simplify more complex issues. So it’s really not startling that if you ask the average high school student what started the Civil War, they’d say slavery. Or perhaps they’d say people started it because high schoolers are just like that. But regardless, most people believe that slavery was the main cause of the Civil War. However, despite common conception, the main cause of the Civil War was not simply slavery, but rather slavery was just another factor that led to Southern states believing they had the right to secede. The Civil War wasn’t something that occurred just overnight; decades of tensions between
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Should the act be passed as a law, the state must peacefully secede from the Union. This became a specific issue in 1832, when South Carolina nullified, and attempted to convince other states to do so, because a high tariff increase. Though President Jackson resolved the issue, the crisis was an issue of states’ rights that brought up secession and increased tensions between the North and South. The issue of slavery also brought many questions over states rights. For example, from westward expansion arose the issue over states or territories becoming slave states or free states. Eventually, the idea of popular sovereignty came into play. Popular sovereignty was the idea that that voters in a territory decided if it would be a free-state or a slave-state. This policy was put in place in 1854 with the Kansas- Nebraska Act. Though this seemed a reasonable compromise, a problem with “swing votes” arose. To put it in simple term, both those pro-slavery and those anti-slavery sent people to Kansas in order to put the vote in their favor, on whether or not Kansas would become a free or slave state. Violent conflicts between these two groups resulted in a phenomenon dubbed “Bleeding Kansas” These conflicts only increased tensions between the Northern and Southern states. The final increase in tension came from the election of republican President Lincoln, who supported high tariffs, subsidies for railroads, and not allowing slavery to further spread into the Western territories.All these mounting tensions eventually led the ultimate question of states rights- did Southern states have the right to secede over all of these differences? The South believed they did, and thus, seceded. This began the Civil
Should the act be passed as a law, the state must peacefully secede from the Union. This became a specific issue in 1832, when South Carolina nullified, and attempted to convince other states to do so, because a high tariff increase. Though President Jackson resolved the issue, the crisis was an issue of states’ rights that brought up secession and increased tensions between the North and South. The issue of slavery also brought many questions over states rights. For example, from westward expansion arose the issue over states or territories becoming slave states or free states. Eventually, the idea of popular sovereignty came into play. Popular sovereignty was the idea that that voters in a territory decided if it would be a free-state or a slave-state. This policy was put in place in 1854 with the Kansas- Nebraska Act. Though this seemed a reasonable compromise, a problem with “swing votes” arose. To put it in simple term, both those pro-slavery and those anti-slavery sent people to Kansas in order to put the vote in their favor, on whether or not Kansas would become a free or slave state. Violent conflicts between these two groups resulted in a phenomenon dubbed “Bleeding Kansas” These conflicts only increased tensions between the Northern and Southern states. The final increase in tension came from the election of republican President Lincoln, who supported high tariffs, subsidies for railroads, and not allowing slavery to further spread into the Western territories.All these mounting tensions eventually led the ultimate question of states rights- did Southern states have the right to secede over all of these differences? The South believed they did, and thus, seceded. This began the Civil