Although many historians believe that sectional differences on the issue of slavery caused the Civil War; Holt argues that the actual cause of the civil was the political crisis of the 1850s. Holt argues if sectional differences over slavery or even slavery itself caused the Civil War, then why didn’t the war start earlier? The tension between the North and South existed almost 75 years; therefore slavery alone could not have caused the Civil War (402). Holt proposes a different idea; he argues that the political crisis caused the Civil War. He says that the reshaping and collapse of the old two-party system was a major cause of the Civil War. Holt believes a second cause was the loss of faith in the political system (403). Holt argues that
