The Main Causes Of The Civil War

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The Main Causes of the Civil War A summary In the years leading up to the civil war much had changed in the northern part of America. Country side slowly became abandoned as people industrialized and moved into cities. With that industrialization, came the fall of slavery in the north, as people of all races had to work together. Southern America on the other hand, had none of these changes, in face the only real change they had was that they needed more slaves to work on larger crops. These social differences caused much tension between the states. This tension was the first cause of the civil war. The second cause of the civil war was the battle being waged between state rights and federal rights. One side argued that the state needed more power to control itself and the other side argued for more control on a federal level. When things came to a crescendo, many leaders came together and secretly created our constitution. Not all the leaders were present however, both Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were not in attendance, both of them being advocates for state rights. As the American people heard of the new laws they felt they were being mistreated and demanded the right to erase federal laws, a policy called nullification. Nullification was harshly shot down by the federal government but people still fought for it, people like John C. Calhoun. However, the government continued to shoot down the idea and so the states began to consider secession. Soon after President Lincolns election South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas seceded from the union, and created their own. They did this because they believed Lincoln to be antislavery and looking out mainly for the northern states interest, however he never said that he was antislavery in fact he once said: "I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that
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