What Was The Cause Of The Civil War Essay

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Over the last century many historians argued what the cause of the civil war was. While some argue that the causes were Political others argue that the cause of the civil war was economics. In this essay, we will address both sides of this argument starting with the political side of the argument. In the late 1850’s, the United States of America had become extremely divided politically and economically. From the political stand view the northern did not support slavery as opposed to their southern neighbors whose main source of labor and revenue was slave labor. The arguments that Political division was the most important factor contributing to the outbreak of the civil war was southerners had lost faith in politics, Politicians had long…show more content…
The first reason why politics was the cause of civil war, Southerners had lost faith in politics. Men in the Deep South never regained faith in the efficacy of party politics. They proved more receptive to the message that secession itself was necessary to restore republicanism. Sectional extremism flourished in the Deep South because there was no new frameworks of two-party competition had appeared there as it had in the North and upper South. The second reason why politics was the cause of the civil war, Politicians had long recognized that group conflict was endemic to American society and that the vitality of individual parties depended on the intensity of their competition with opposing parties. Thomas Jefferson had perceived in 1798 that “in every free and deliberating society, there must, from the nature of man, be opposite parties, and violent dissensions and discords.” “Seeing that we must have somebody to quarrel with,” He wrote John Taylor, “I had rather keep our New England associates for that purpose, than to see our bickering transferred to others.” They deplored the lack of internal discipline and cohesion in the Jeffersonian Republican party once the federalists disappeared, and they moved quickly to remedy
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