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The Civil War will come to be known as the war that pitted father against son and brother against brother. The causes of the war were numerous, but there are quite a few that stick in most historians minds. I myself have chosen three events that greatly impacted the start of the civil war. They are as follows The Compromise of 185 The Kansas-Nebraska Ac Abraham Lincoln elected President Union to remain undivided for a short time. In the end, we still went to war.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act divided the unorganized territory into two territories: Kansas and Nebraska. This act essentially declared the Missouri Compromise unlawful because owners of property could not take their property with them legally. There was no specific mention as to whether slaver would be allowed nationally. The Kansas-Nebraska acted divided the territory at the 40 th parallel. It was expected that Nebraska would decide by popular sovereignty to be free.
It was also expected that Kansas would also decide to be a slave state. Bloodshed would eventually erupt over whether Kansas should be free or slave. Bleeding Kansas would pit two governments against itself. Kansas would eventually be declared a free state, but to the disliking of the South. The straw that broke the camels back would come during the election of 1861. The nation was fiercely divided on the issue of slavery.
The Compromise of 1850 enraged many Northerners. The caning of Senator Sumner showed that even the legislature is not immune to the anti / pro slavery clashes. The Election of 1860 showed that the voting public wanted a president with a firm stance on slavery. The election of 1860 was what caused South Carolina to break from the Union. This was the Souths last stand on anti-slavery forces. It was decided that with the election of a anti-slavery president, the creation of a pro-slavery country was needed.
They say that hindsight is always twenty-twenty. The events that happened during the mid- 1800? s would ultimately lead to the civil war. If I could go back and alter one event to compromise, I would have to go with altering the Kansas-Nebraska act. The declaration saying that the Missouri Compromise was unlawful was an unfair blow to the North. The right to take property anywhere an owner goes is a fair statement.
But saying that slaves do not hold the same rights as whites is like saying that abortions are wrong because they kill innocent children. Both of these statements are a matter of opinion that had its justifications and fallacies. I believe that if the Kansas-Nebraska act was altered to say that Kansas and Nebraska should both be free this would have upset the South greatly. Yet, it would have shown our need for strong morals and humanity.
The Kansas-Nebraska act showed a bias to the South. If the act had been written as the way I have prescribed, perhaps the bloodshed of Bleeding Kansas would not have occurred. Perhaps the pro-slavery movement would have accepted the law and chosen to abstain from violence. Perhaps more violence would have ensued.
It is difficult to make an educated guess on an event that could have been altered. The American Civil War was the war that tore the nation apart. The Civil War helped us rectify our differences and live in a country that would start to recognize civil rights. The Civil War was the turning point that moved our country out agrarian ways and into the Industrial Revolution. The Civil War helped America move forward and put her differences behind her.
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Research essay sample on Kansas Nebraska Act Election Of 1860
