Cause Of The Civil War Essay

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Causes of the Civil War The Civil War is arguably the most famous of the wars in American history. This war did not just begin out of nowhere; there were many factors brewing amongst the nation that led both directly and indirectly to the Civil War. From 1790- 1860, there were numerous events that eventually built tensions so high, that the election of Abraham Lincoln as president alone was the direct cause of the war. However, the underlying causes of the Civil War explain the tensions going on between the northern states and the southern states. Most of the tension was about slavery and how the north disapproved of it and how the south refused to give up any sort of their labor force from the plantations. The major events during this time…show more content…
Hence, Massachusetts and eight other states passed personal liberty laws which stated that state officials could not in any way assist in the capturing of fugitive slaves. Then under the James K. Polk administration, the Mexican-American war began in 1846 where the United States army captured Mexico. Causing more tension than the war itself, the Wilmot Proviso really got under the skin of the southerners. The Wilmot Proviso said that slavery was not allowed in newly acquired Mexico. Since it was a federal bill, the south, of course, blocked this bill which escalated the tensions as high as they had ever been before. One year later, 1847, John Calhoun comes out and publicly says that slavery is legal in all territories because they aren’t yet a state. Then later that year, Stephen A. Douglas, an Illinois senator, promoted Lewis Cass’s idea of popular sovereignty. Popular Sovereignty let the people of the territory vote themselves whether slavery should be legal or not. In 1849, the California Gold Rush exponentially populated Northern California. Once this happened, immigrants began to outnumber the U.S. citizens. Since the immigrants were more willing to work for a cheaper cost, they began to take many of the jobs. Also, California unanimously rejected slavery and petitioned to become part of

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