The Causes of the Civil War: The Political, Cultural, Economic and Territorial Disputes between North and South

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McFarland, Oct 16, 2014 - History - 308 pages

While South Carolina's preemptive strike on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's subsequent call to arms started the Civil War, South Carolina's secession and Lincoln's military actions were simply the last in a chain of events stretching as far back as the early 1750s. Increasing moral conflicts and political debates over slavery--exacerbated by the inequities inherent between an established agricultural society and a growing industrial one--led to a fierce sectionalism which manifested itself through cultural, economic, political and territorial disputes. This historical study reduces sectionalism to its most fundamental form, examining the underlying source of this antagonistic climate. From protective tariffs to the expansionist agenda, it illustrates the ways in which the foremost issues of the time influenced relations between the North and the South.

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Contents

Preface
1
Slavery and Its Impact on Sectionalism 1619 to 1830
5
The Rise and Fall of Abolitionism 1750 to 1848
20
Economic Protectionism 1815 to 1828
31
Old Hickory Comes to Washington 1829 to 1832
53
The Bank War and Southern Nullification 1832 to 1834
76
The Turbulent Years 1834 to 1836
93
The Panic and SubTreasuries 1837 to 1840
106
A Time to Compromise 1847 to 1850
166
Sectional Politics 1850 to 1853
185
Filibusters 1849 to 1860
199
The KansasNebraska Act 1852 to 1854
207
Political Realignment 1854 to 1856
220
The Fight for Kansas 1854 to 1858
231
From Brown to Lincoln 856 to 860
248
The End of the Road 860 to 86
265

John Tyler and Texas Too 1840 to 1845
116
The Expansionist Agenda 1845 to 1846
135
Territorial Sectionalism 1846 to 1847
153
Chronology
283
Copyright

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Page 240 - Measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void ; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate Slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States...
Page 11 - There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.
Page 271 - The Constitution of the United States of America.' "We the People of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained "That the Ordinance adopted by us in Convention, on the twentythird day of May, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America...
Page 84 - I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one state, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed.
Page 80 - The opinion of the judges has no more authority over congress than the opinion of congress has over the judges, and on that point the president is independent of both.
Page 24 - I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch— AND I WILL BE HEARD.

About the author (2014)

Paul Calore has written on the causes of the Civil War, as well as books about its naval and land campaigns. He is a supporting member of the Civil War Preservation Trust, and lives in Seekonk, Massachusetts.

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