Politics, Politics And Political Conflicts During The Civil War

From my studies in this class, it is clear that the north and the south developed different politics, economics and culture. These differences become increasingly deep seeded and entrenched as time went on. These caused friction on several issues like states rights versus federal power, taxes and other cultural issues. While there are several reasons for the war those stems from any number of these differences; we will focus our attentions on the few that were central to the conflict as sighted by major players in the conflict. Historical background that builds to the conflict will be considered as well.
We will start from the early decisions that caused friction. The Compromise Act; in 1819, Missouri applied for admission into the Union but was denied. A second attempted was made in 1820, it took two separate measures from the US house, that admitted Missouri as a slave state and admitted Maine as a free state, thereby preserving the balance between free and slave states votes in the Senate. This compromise in effect made slavery …show more content…
This was the struggle between the federal government and individual states over political power. During the Civil War era, the struggle emerged immensely because of the institution of slavery and whether the federal government would have the right to regulate or even abolish slavery within an individual state. This debate affected both the northern and southern states and thus widened the division within the nation. There was an exacerbating tension when the old Whig political party died out. Most of the followers joined the American Party (Know-Nothings) while others who were opposed to slavery turn to form a new political entity called “Republican Party.” In 1860, when Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election, the Southerners feared that the Republicans would abolish slavery. President Lincoln was an avowed opponent of the expansion of slavery but didn’t interfere with