The Civil War: Inevitable
Was
the Civil War truly inevitable? Some people say it was, some say it
was not, but no one knows for sure. There are great amounts of
evidence on both sides. Here are three pieces of evidence that the
Civil War was inevitable.
The
first piece of evidence to look at is that the Northerners and
Southerners both refused to change. The Southerners were thoroughly
dependent on slavery to preserve their economy by working their large
and numerous plantations. These plantations produced all of the crops
which formed their exports and livelihood. The Northerners, on the
other hand, believed quite strongly that slavery should be abolished.
They believed it so strongly, in fact, that they refused to follow
the Fugitive Slave Law, which required the return of all runaway
slaves.
The
next piece of evidence to examine is that both sides refused to
compromise. The Northerners and the Southerners both wanted the
western territories of California, New Mexico, and Utah. However,
neither side was willing to let the other get a good hold on the
territory for fear the slave/free state balance would be upset. When
Henry Clay, the master of compromise, wrote a compromise in an
attempt to smooth things out and prevent war, Congress was unable to
get a majority to pass it. Clay then broke the compromise into
smaller pieces, which were passed one at a time. This meant that the
compromise had no Congressional majority supporting the whole thing.
Clay's compromise included the Fugitive Slave Law, which made the
Northerners extremely angry about being forced to help support the
very thing they were trying to abolish.
When
Northerner Abraham Lincoln gained the presidency in 1860, the state
of South Carolina left the Union, believing that they could not trust
a president who held opposite views. They were rapidly followed by
six other slave states. President Lincoln refused to accept their
secession announcement, and tried to compromise with the seceded
states. However, the Southerners refused all attempts at
reconciliation.
The
final piece of evidence to consider is that both sides were clearly
willing to fight. Northerner John Brown led a raid on the Harper's
Ferry military arsenal in Virginia, with the probable intent of
arming slaves and leading them to revolt. In Kansas, when the time
came to decide whether it would be free or slave, fighting broke out
between the two sides. Several other slave states also had internal
fights raging over whether or not to secede.
Fort
Sumter in North Carolina was held by the Union, and the Confederates
(as the seceded Southerners called themselves) summoned the fort to
surrender. After Lincoln tried to send fresh supplies to the
garrison, the Confederates opened fire and shelled the fort for
twenty-six hours, resulting in two Union men killed and the fort's
surrender. In response to the fort's capture, President Lincoln
called for seventy-five thousand volunteers from state militias to
create an army with. He also ordered a blockade of all Confederate
ports.
In
conclusion, this evidence shows a strong likelihood of the war having
been inevitable. When people are quarreling over something and refuse
to change, a compromise is the next step. When that fails, and both
sides are quite willing to fight, a war is pretty much inevitable.
This was almost completely the case in the years leading up to 1860,
which leads to the conclusion that the arguing and quarreling would
have turned into outright war sooner or later.
