8/6/2019 Civil War Thing

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Dominick Famularo1 page responseAPUSH

The civil war was a power struggle between the north and the south. The north,

being mostly abolitionists and the south being for slavery, felt it was their responsibilityto take control of the situation and wage war against the south.

The southern economy was almost solely based on slavery and indenturedservitude. With the Souths fertile soil and warm climate, agriculture was quitewelcomed. Tobacco, rice, cotton and sugarcane were all grown in the south. In the 19 th century the system of growing crops they had, the plantation system was almost fullydependent on the unpaid labor of the enslaved Africans. The south, being almost all

plantations, provided work for these Africans, but the work treated them terribly and putthem inferior to the Caucasian population.

Tariffs were also a huge part of the starting of the civil war. Tariffs were permitted in the Constitution to allow the United States to generate revenue. During1816, tariffs were beginning to take aim at southern markets. Many northern politicianswere looking at wealthy plantation owners and wanting to share that wealth with themand tariffs were the way that this goal could be accomplished. Another tariff, the tariff of 1828, started the first secessionist crisis in South Carolina. The main participators in this

battle were John C. Calhoun and President Jackson. The final solution to this was thenullification crisis which stated that federal tariffs could be null and void.

Another thing that sparked the war was the purchase of the Louisiana territory.Thomas Jefferson knew as President he did not have the power within the Constitution toagree to buy Louisiana from the French, but he did it anyway. This one act set the stagefor a major shift in the political power in the United States, away from the states and tothe President and Congress. The South felt that the President and Congress only had

powers directly given to them in the Constitution, but northern and western interestswanted a government who would do more for them and favored expansion of these

powers.

Land was also a huge cause in the beginning of this war. The Mormons, decidedto move to Utah, which was untaken territory. Brigham Young used an intriguingargument combining religious freedom and his own views on the power of the federalgovernment to justify forming an independent nation and raising his own army. Afraidthat southern states might interpret this as being a precedent for secession, Buchananordered Sidney Johnston to the Utah Territory to quell the rebellion

From a southern perspective, the civil war was bound to happen. Similar to therevolutionary war, the south was becoming fed up and they thought that their form of government was the best and they believed that it would move the country forward themost. As we know, the north wins the war and slavery is abolished, but the civil war wasone of the bloodiest and worst worlds that this country is to face.