War, what is it good
for?
The Civil
War was justified by both the Union and the Confederacy, in addition to its
justification in the end. The Confederacy wanted to defend their politics,
societal behavior, and “morals,” by seceding from the Union. The Union had many
political, social, and moral reasons to take down the Confederacy’s
independence and reclaim the land it included. In the end, the war united all
the states and allowed our country to grow and succeed in future battles.
One of the
main reasons the Civil War started was due to the debate of whether federal
government or state government should have more power. The Articles of
Confederation, which were written after the Revolutionary War, were very broad
and caused many problems because it did not give the federal government enough
power. US leaders got together in response to these problems at the
Constitutional convention and wrote the US constitution in secret and then
declared it to the public. Since the Constitution
took away rights of the state governments, many of the states who wanted these
rights for their businesses were outraged.
The states that opposed the
constitution were primarily in the South, where the Articles of Confederation
previously allowed them to run their politics and businesses (basically)
however they wanted. The States that opposed the Constitution tried to nullify
the acts in them, but the federal government wouldn’t allow it. This
disagreement in rights led to the secession of States, which threw the federal
government into a panic. Soon enough, the southern states were seceding and the
northern states were remaining. The social and economic differences of the
North and South also contributed to the divide, and the north became known as
the union while the southern seceding states became the confederacy.
The confederacy was justified in
seceding because they were not allowed to oppose federal acts, which violated
their previous rights. The federal government, which at the time did not
represent them well nor inform them of what was going on until they were
enacting things, was wrong in their actions. When the war began the Confederacy
was not only fighting for states rights but also the social right to slavery,
which supported a huge portion of their business and economy. The southern
states thought Abraham Lincoln ignored their interests in favor of the northern
states because he did not support slavery, and his election in 1860 was the
final straw for the south. They definitely had justifiable reasons in their
response to the federal government and the Union’s war efforts.
The Union was justified in
proposing more power to the federal government and trying to regain the
Confederacy States. The problems that could’ve arisen without the enactment of
the constitution could’ve wreaked havoc on the government’s efficiency, due to
its extreme lack of clarification and rights to the federal government. It’s
understandable that the Union also wanted to keep the Southern States from
seceding and regain them once they had already seceded, because they traded
often with the South and did not want to cause future problems by becoming two
separate countries.
The Civil War as a whole was
justified at the beginning by both parties and in the end. The Civil War made
our government stronger, gave slaves their rightful freedom, and united the states. All of these factors
contributed to our successes, and in some cases our failures, but overall the
united states is a pretty great country in terms of civil rights because of the
Civil War.
Citations:
Kelly, M.. N.p.. Web. 13 Sep 2013.
<http://americanhistory.about.com/od/civilwarmenu/a/cause_civil_war.htm>.
The Columbia Encyclopedia, 5. E.. N.p.. Web. 13 Sep 2013.
<http://www.us-civilwar.com/cause.htm>.
. N.p.. Web. 13 Sep 2013.
<http://blueandgraytrail.com/features/northerncauses.html>.
. N.p.. Web. 13 Sep 2013.
<http://www.civilwarhome.com/confederatecauses.htm>.
