The American Civil War

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that one the central reasons for the inevitably of the American Civil War was the fact that secession of the south resulted in two separate political and economic entities with very different labor, economic and ethical views, which precluded any federal or negotiated solution. The author points out that the moral issue surrounding the slave question was certainly the most divisive issue, which, coupled with the election of Present Lincoln, became a fundamental reason that conflict was inevitable. The paper relates that, although there are alternative views that (1) there was no real reason for the inevitability of the war, (2) the differences could be resolved through compromise and negotiation and (3) the initiation of the war by the North was in reality a blatant act of aggression again the South; the author feels that the stronger arguments are that the war was inevitable. Many quotations.

From the Paper:

"The issue of slavery was not only divisive in terms of policy and labor, but was one which divided the nation at a very fundamental ethical level. In other words, Lincoln realized that the future stability of the nation as a whole was in jeopardy if an issue of this moral magnitude was not conclusively resolved. Even critics of the war such as Stromberg acknowledge the importance of the slavery issue. He wrote that "slavery was an issue in 1860-1861 and in a sense underlay many other North/ South differences leading up to secession"; even those he still contend that secession was the true cause of the conflict."

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