Causes Of The Civil War
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The causes of the Civil War are many, the obvious being slavery, however that is merely on the surface. The underlying causes were far more detrimental to the health of the union, the main cause being money. The economic disputes between the North and the South, which were partially over slavery, were the root to the South seceding. The resentment felt by the South towards the North, because of the growth of cities, ports, and the economy there in general, in addition to the idea of the abolishment of slavery, which would put a serious dent into the economy of the South which was already struggling led them to secede. It has been said that money is the root of all evil, and it certainly is in this case.
To understand the dispute one must look at the many glaring differences between not only the economies, but life itself in the North and South. The North was an ever changing, ever evolving area, always welcoming changes and advancements in technology. The interest was always in how to produce more, faster, and for cheaper. Not only did Northerners gain economically through manufacturing but they owned the majority of the importing and exporting business in the country. While the North was looking to advance and change the South was the exact opposite. While Northerners looked for ways to maximize output, farming in the South was as labor intensive in 1800 as it was in 1860. The South did not accept change, and did its best to stick with traditional practices. What enabled the southern economy to work at all was the reason it could not follow the North. Because slaves were capital and labor it made it impossible to have a capital intensive economy; there werent any tractors for farmers to purchase, they purchased more slaves. Another significant difference between the North and South was how they valued education. In the North education was held in the highest esteem and nearly everyone was literate, the South however was not quite the same. Amongst Southerners there was no commitment to education; almost half of the population was illiterate. This contributed to the economic separation because it was educated minds of that time that was making all the technological advancements; they were the ones running the factories and the ports. If the South had educated their children the way the North did perhaps there would have been more technological advancements made in farming. The lack of middle class in the South was another contributing factor to the economic separation of the two regions. The middle class of the North represented skilled laborers, with out that the South had no diversity in production and could not offer a variety of goods and services, leaving all that business in the north. Men of the south looked down upon “Yankees” as vulgar and materialistic, they did not want to be like them, and frowned down at industrialization. “The Civil War had freed capitalism from the political and economic restraints upon free economic activity that the slave power had imposed”(Hacker, Revolutionary America, 1935). Because slavery had been such a hot topic in the 1840s and 50s the resources that could fight for either side were exasperated. Both the slave owners of the South and the abolitionists of the North and Mid West leaned heavily on their legislative, executive and judicial resources to fight for their cause. With all this going on it caused other political problems to be some what overlooked. The exception to that being economic issues, such as the protective tariff which was enacted in 1861 and a homestead law in 1862. This goes to show how it was economic issues that ultimately led to the out break of the Civil War, when Northern Republicans passed these laws that furthered the economic burden on the south it led to their secession.
During the time of the war the economic reasons were made clear in newspaper editorials and Congressional speeches. “You are not content with the vast millions of tribute we pay you annually under the revenue lawÐby making your people our manufacturers, our merchants and our shippersÐYou are not satisfied with all this but