Regional economic interests led to social and political differences that seemed insurmountable
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4-6.3: Explain the specific events and issues that led to the Civil War, including sectionalism,
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It is essential for students to know:
Students should know how the events related to westward expansion led to the Civil War,
including the Missouri Compromise, the fugitive slave laws, the annexation of Texas, the
Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision (4-5.5).
Sectionalism meant that the interest of each section of the country, the North or the South, was
more important to the people of that region than the interest of the country as a whole.
Sectionalism was the result of growing cultural and economic differences between regions (4-
6.1) particularly their differences over the issues of slavery in the western territories.
The Northern and Southern sections of the country also had different philosophies about the
power of the federal government. Farmers and plantation owners, usually in the south, supported
the idea of states’ rights, in which the authority rests with the states, and they believed a
government closer to the people was easier to influence. Southerners adopted this as a way to
protect slavery. They feared that the federal government might take away the right to own slaves
even though the federal government only had the power to limit the spread of slavery into the
territories like the Northwest Ordinance and Missouri Compromise and could not affect the
states where it was already established. The North recognized the authority of the national
government. This difference in views had its roots in the early national period with the inception
of the two-party system (Jeffersonian vs. Hamilton 4-4.5) and the deep philosophical differences
about the structure and power of the federal system is one of the issues that led to the Civil War.
The presidential election of 1860 brought sectional conflict to the breaking point. The new
Republican Party ( 1856) opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories (a concept known
as free-soil) and nominated the little-known Abraham Lincoln as their candidate. Lincoln had
served four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives and represented his state once as a
Congressman, but had not come to the attention of the public until his unsuccessful bid to
represent Illinois in the US Senate in 1858. In that Senate race, he challenged the nationally
known, presidential hopeful and incumbent author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Stephen A
Douglas. To even his chances at winning the Senate seat, Republican candidate Lincoln
challenged Douglas to a series of seven debates across their state on the political issues of the
day. Douglas’ national political aspirations in the upcoming presidential election of 1860
inadvertently transformed the stage into a national one as Douglas tried to maintain his Illinois
(northern) constituency for the Senate seat without alienating future Southern supporters needed
in two years to win the presidency. Lincoln was defeated in the 1858 Illinois Senate race,
however the same national audience that heard Douglas attempt to please both sections of the
country also read Lincoln’s words in the newspaper. The Republicans were soon convinced that
he best articulated their platform and chose him as the party’s candidate for president in 1860.
The well-established Democratic Party failed to keep their northern and southern factions
together (Southerners insisted on a plank in the party platform that endorsed slavery, causing
Northerners to leave the nominating convention.) Douglas did indeed become the presidential
candidate for the Democratic party in 1860, but the southern half of the party splintered off and
formed a third party with their own candidate, as did another political group. The southern states
feared the election of Lincoln as a Republican (seen as an abolitionist party) despite the fact that
his ‘free soil’ position on slavery in the territories was well known (that it should not expand into
the territories, but was legally established in areas where it already existed). Lincoln’s stated
priority was upholding the federal Union. In an atmosphere of heightened sectional distrust,
however, an accurate understanding of the candidates’ positions and what could or couldn’t be
legally achieved in office (ending slavery?) by one branch of the federal government was greatly
biased. None of the four candidates won a majority of the votes, but Lincoln won a plurality and
thus enough electoral votes to become the next president. Claiming that they were protecting
states’ rights and their way of life, with a few months of the election and prior to the
inauguration, seven of the southern states, led by South Carolina seceded from the Union. (An
additional 4 states seceded after the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861.)
As a result of this secession, the newly-seceded states declared that they were a new country
named the Confederate States of American (CSA) or the Confederacy. They quickly wrote a
constitution that endorsed both slavery and states’ rights and elected Jefferson Davis as their
president. When the war began in at Fort Sumter in1861, neither the Union nor the Confederacy
entered the war with any intention or desire to change the status of African Americans.
Students should know how the events related to westward expansion led to the Civil War,
including the Missouri Compromise, the fugitive slave laws, the annexation of Texas, the
Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision (4-5.5).
Sectionalism meant that the interest of each section of the country, the North or the South, was
more important to the people of that region than the interest of the country as a whole.
Sectionalism was the result of growing cultural and economic differences between regions (4-
6.1) particularly their differences over the issues of slavery in the western territories.
The Northern and Southern sections of the country also had different philosophies about the
power of the federal government. Farmers and plantation owners, usually in the south, supported
the idea of states’ rights, in which the authority rests with the states, and they believed a
government closer to the people was easier to influence. Southerners adopted this as a way to
protect slavery. They feared that the federal government might take away the right to own slaves
even though the federal government only had the power to limit the spread of slavery into the
territories like the Northwest Ordinance and Missouri Compromise and could not affect the
states where it was already established. The North recognized the authority of the national
government. This difference in views had its roots in the early national period with the inception
of the two-party system (Jeffersonian vs. Hamilton 4-4.5) and the deep philosophical differences
about the structure and power of the federal system is one of the issues that led to the Civil War.
The presidential election of 1860 brought sectional conflict to the breaking point. The new
Republican Party ( 1856) opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories (a concept known
as free-soil) and nominated the little-known Abraham Lincoln as their candidate. Lincoln had
served four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives and represented his state once as a
Congressman, but had not come to the attention of the public until his unsuccessful bid to
represent Illinois in the US Senate in 1858. In that Senate race, he challenged the nationally
known, presidential hopeful and incumbent author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Stephen A
Douglas. To even his chances at winning the Senate seat, Republican candidate Lincoln
challenged Douglas to a series of seven debates across their state on the political issues of the
day. Douglas’ national political aspirations in the upcoming presidential election of 1860
inadvertently transformed the stage into a national one as Douglas tried to maintain his Illinois
(northern) constituency for the Senate seat without alienating future Southern supporters needed
in two years to win the presidency. Lincoln was defeated in the 1858 Illinois Senate race,
however the same national audience that heard Douglas attempt to please both sections of the
country also read Lincoln’s words in the newspaper. The Republicans were soon convinced that
he best articulated their platform and chose him as the party’s candidate for president in 1860.
The well-established Democratic Party failed to keep their northern and southern factions
together (Southerners insisted on a plank in the party platform that endorsed slavery, causing
Northerners to leave the nominating convention.) Douglas did indeed become the presidential
candidate for the Democratic party in 1860, but the southern half of the party splintered off and
formed a third party with their own candidate, as did another political group. The southern states
feared the election of Lincoln as a Republican (seen as an abolitionist party) despite the fact that
his ‘free soil’ position on slavery in the territories was well known (that it should not expand into
the territories, but was legally established in areas where it already existed). Lincoln’s stated
priority was upholding the federal Union. In an atmosphere of heightened sectional distrust,
however, an accurate understanding of the candidates’ positions and what could or couldn’t be
legally achieved in office (ending slavery?) by one branch of the federal government was greatly
biased. None of the four candidates won a majority of the votes, but Lincoln won a plurality and
thus enough electoral votes to become the next president. Claiming that they were protecting
states’ rights and their way of life, with a few months of the election and prior to the
inauguration, seven of the southern states, led by South Carolina seceded from the Union. (An
additional 4 states seceded after the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861.)
As a result of this secession, the newly-seceded states declared that they were a new country
named the Confederate States of American (CSA) or the Confederacy. They quickly wrote a
constitution that endorsed both slavery and states’ rights and elected Jefferson Davis as their
president. When the war began in at Fort Sumter in1861, neither the Union nor the Confederacy
entered the war with any intention or desire to change the status of African Americans.