By: Addison Adams

Over the past decades since the beginning of

the civil war, many people have wondered the

cause of the civil war. Although, many believe

that the cause was Southern Secession.

However, the South would not have seceded

with out slavery and the events that followed in

the footsteps of slavery.

The reasons for the Southern secession is still

very unclear however, the most common belief

is the Election of 1860. Many Southerners

believed that Lincoln would end slavery.

The Election of 1860 was between Abraham

Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, as the 2 major

candidates. Abraham Lincoln won 57% of the

popular votes and won 180 electoral votes.

Slavery was a controversial issue of that time

period. The North and the South have had the

opposing views of slavery for decades, so that

it was almost destined to create conflict. The

North viewed slavery as horrible and should be

outlawed, and the South viewed it as the

State’s right to determine whether of not the

have slavery. Which leads to an issue of states

rights.

In the South, many of the states legislatures

and leaders believed in the State’s Rights.

They believed that if a state wants to allow

slavery then they should be allowed to.

However, many believed that controversial

issues should be dealt with by the Federal

government.

Another possible cause of the civil was the

Dred Scott versus Sandford. This probably

infuriated the Northern politicians because

Slaves could not be free if they did escape or

not have an owner. This gave the South some

leeway with their slave ownership.

At this time the North was cramming laws down

to the South, which prevented the South from

governing themselves. When the South

decided to start to think of independently of

governing themselves, the North wanted to

recover them and get the nation back together.

With all of these relating to each other so

much, it will be nearly impossible to ever

determine which one was the cause of the Civil

War.

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