Under Generals Taylor and Scott, Davis was a veteran in the Mexican War, where he served as a colonel. He had experience as being Franklin Pierce's Secretary of War years before, but despite his experiences over Lincoln militarily, the military prowess of General Robert E. Lee in the Eastern Theater of War was unable to be matched by any other Confederate generals in the West, where Lincoln's officers had a large advantage. As opposed to Lincoln's flexibility as a leader, Lee was largely hindered by Jefferson Davis who was possibly too "controlling" when it came to fighting the war despite Lee's
Ulysses S. Grant was well known for General and Commander of the union armies during the late years of the American civil war, and the 18th president of the United States. Although many people did not think he was that great of a leader, I found a lot of American history from researching him. It is really unbelievable that Ulysses Grant even survived his army career because of the rumors that surrounded him during the war. To me he had an amazing military career. He was first stationed in Missouri in 1846; this was when America went to war with Mexico.
The philosopher filled our libraries with documents that cement the fundamental structure of our constitution. The politician acted with an acclimated understanding to run a centralized government sometimes requires action at odds with philosophical and moral belief. Jefferson was ambivalent about slavery throughout his career, yet he owned over 600 slaves throughout his lifetime. He believed in a limited government, and yet he expanded government authority more so than Washington and Adams. He was nicknamed, “Man of the People”, but he was born in a predominate family, and lived well outside his means throughout his life.
The 15th amendment (1870) gave black men equal voting rights with white men. However they were threatened or physically stopped from voting. It was no good having rights which were not enforced. Yet inequality increased at the end of the 19th century and continued in the early 20th century through Southern states passing the ‘Jim Crow’ laws which increased segregation. WW1 did little in stopping the rising tide of segregation.
However the South was driven by a workforce that thrived off the plantation system, which was basically the use of slaves. The South also had fewer large cities, and little manufacturing except in border areas. As can be imagined northern population was growing much more quickly than the Southern population, which made it very difficult for the South to continue to influence the government as it did. By the time of the 1860 election, the heavily agricultural Southern states as a whole had fewer Electoral College votes than the quickly industrializing Northern states. Given this Lincoln was able to win the Presidential Election of 1860 without even being on the ballot in Southern states.
In retrospect, there are multiple reasons for the South’s loss or for the North’s victory. One of the reasons the North’s victory was their superiority in manpower. Lincoln had at his disposal a population of 22,000,000, compared with a Southern population of 9,000,000, which included 3,500,000 slaves whom they dared not arm. The key difference was, as casualties grew for the Union Army, they reluctantly turned to African Americans. This provided a far larger base from which to draw troops, even though it has been suggested that Southerners were keener to join up than their Union counterparts.
White men now had universal manhood suffrage. The United States had achieved what many countries at this time could not achieve, but they were still lacking in guaranteeing political democracy for women, slaves, freed African Americans, Indians, and slaves. Philip Hone, a New York City businessman and Whig politician reported on a pro-slavery riot in Philadelphia on 1834 (DE). He made it clear that there was not political democracy with in Philadelphia in regards to the rights of African Americans. Harriet Martineau, a British author reported on her 1834 visit to the U.S. She believed that the U.S. was politically democratic and diversified (DD).
His speech, given in 1858, stated that, a divided house cannot stand and visualized that America can not endure a “half-slave and half-free.” This clearly showed that he was a moderate and was therefore not up to task, in the views of the southerners, to be able to tackle the abolitionist they perceived as a threat. He countered this by stating he will uphold the doctrine of states right. Most southerners distrusted him.. His victory in the election led to the secession of eleven southern states from the union leading to the formation of the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as its president. This was viewed by
The United States of America originally consisted of 13 states but was gradually expanded until it took the shape we know today with 50 states and Washington D.C. being the capital district. The United States of America’s greatest crisis was undoubtedly the American Civil War, which took place in the years between 1861 and 1865. There were several causes to the war because the differences between the North and South states being numerous, but the main reason was probably the issue of slavery and this was certainly the triggering factor, and not actually because the Northern states would have prohibited slavery in the Southern states, but because of the disagreement between
The South had a much smaller army and navy which was a significant factor to why the North won. The sheer manpower of the North can be seen as the main reason why the North won. The Southern states had a population of 9 million which is miniscule compared to the 22 million people Lincoln had at his disposal. Also a large number of the Southern population were slaves and the Southern leaders were unlikely to arm the slaves the North wanted to free. Slavery was the main reason why the North and South divided and went to war.