Was The Civil War Inevitable?

• Did the Civil War actually have to happen?
• Was the Civil War really about slavery?
• Why did the U.S. split in two?
• Was anything really done to try to stop secession and eventually war?

Let’s find out!

Part One: What Was The Issue

     The United States of America, was created and united by the common goal of liberty and independence; it was divided by the same. In 1860, the U.S. Union was dividing north and south over an issue no one could determine, but the root of most of the dissension was the issue of slavery. 

Should it be abolished or expanded; confronted or avoided; was it a moral or economic issue? Should It be allowed in the territories or should it remain where it existed? 

Those were some of the questions asked at the time. The industrial north was mostly anti-slavery, while the agricultural south was mostly pro-slavery. So, for the north slavery was a moral issue and for the south an economic one.

Part Two: Where Is The Middle Ground

     Conflict resolution requires negotiation or mediation. Negotiation has two parties discuss the dispute and come to middle ground, while mediation needs a neutral third party to settle the dispute. 

The U.S. uses neither. It is what is called a representative democracy. There are two parties, the democrats and the republicans, and they campaign for votes until a president is nominated. That president’s decisions are then still subject to the scrutiny of both parties though the House of Representatives and Senate. 

Sounds like a recipe for civil war to me. Let’s go through some history to see if the election helped or hindered the division of the U.S..

Part Three: Nominations and Divisions

     April of 1860, in Charleston SC, the Democratic National Convention was held. The leading candidate was Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois. 

Douglas supporting Democrats pledged to abide by the decision of the Supreme Court regarding slavery, while southern Democrats wanted slavery guaranteed in the territories. 

Consequently, the Democratic party split north and south, with northern Democrats assembling in Baltimore to nominate Douglas, and southern Democrats gathering in Richmond, Virginia to nominate sitting Vice President, John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky.

     With one of the parties split in two, coming to a resolution was becoming less and less feasible. However, one man shined a light into the darkness of this dispute. He was Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, nominee for the Republican Party.

Remember, before I mentioned mediation to be a conflict resolution strategy. Well, the former attorney Abraham Lincoln was favored for his mediation. 

Lincoln supporters were not abolitionists but they did not want slavery to expand into the territories. They affirmed states’ rights to continue slavery where it existed so long as it did not spread any further. 

    So far we have the northern and southern Democratic Parties, and the Republican Party. But there also rose from the south a new party that was neither Democratic nor Republican, but simply the Constitutional Union Party. Its nominee was John Bell of Tennessee. Bell supporters were mostly southerners who wanted to avoid secession but refused to join either party.

Now we see that the 1860 election only created more division in the U.S. but will the nominated president save the Union?

Part Four: The Confederate States Of America

     It was Lincoln vs. Douglas in the north, Bell vs. Breckenridge in the south. With a surprisingly low less than 40% popular vote, Lincoln wins the election. 

Does that mean slavery stays in the south and the Union and saved from secession? Unfortunately, no. Despite a constitutional amendment guaranteeing slavery where it existed, eleven southern states promptly seceded from the Union following Lincoln’s nomination.

They formed the Confederate States of America, adopted a pro-slavery form of the U.S. Constitution, and elected Jefferson Davis as its president.

     The Union was broken. Was it inevitable? Possibly, because judging by the promptness of southern secession, there was never any intention to unify under any grounds. But the question still remains whether civil war was inevitable.

Part Five: “The Momentous Issue of Civil War”

     Abraham Lincoln entered the presidency at a very bad time. He took the presidential oath, which says,

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

     It was Monday, March 4, 1861, and he gave his first inaugural address. His address was spread with truths of the constitution about the Union’s perpetuity. It was filled with affirmations that the new Republican Administration was no threat to slavery. It was ended with the resentment of responsibility for civil war in this quote,

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to ‘preserve, protect, and defend it.’

     Basically, Lincoln said that he had sworn the presidential oath which instructed him to stand by the U.S. Constitution despite all the upheaval.

Part Six: Civil War, Inevitably

     Despite Lincoln’s inaugural address which claimed and proved several times that secession was impossible, reality was, secession had occurred and no common ground could be found without war. A lack of diplomatic willingness on both sides resulted in this terrible conflict.

     April 1861, the Confederate government had seized every Federal installation in the south except for two forts, one of which being Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC. When Confederate demands to surrender the fort were ignored, disagreements soon erupted into the Confederate troops shelling Fort Sumter until Union forces surrendered.

Three days later on April 15, 1861 Lincoln called for 75,000 troops from state militia’s to be raised to suppress the uprising. And so the war began. 

Part Seven: Zion’s Conclusion

     Was it inevitable–unavoidable; sure to happen? Well, I struggle to answer that question because it was something that occurred before even my great grandparents were born. It does help that there is a detailed history of it, but because I was not there in the 1860’s I naturally lack true judgment on the matter; especially a matter of such divided opinion.

However, from my research I found, the motives of aggression over the issue of slavery were in fact not over slavery, but over power and money. The Civil War was a political tool. So the question should not be was the war inevitable. We should rather ask,

“Was the tool of Civil War used appropriately?”

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References

Ankrom, R., & Arnold, S. (2009, November 9). Stephen A. Douglas. Stephen A. Douglas – Politics, Facts & Debates | HISTORY. https://www.history.com/topics/us-government-and-politics/stephen-a-douglas

Battle of Fort Sumter, April 1861 (U.S. (2021, March 30). National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/battle-of-fort-sumter-april-1861.htm

1860 United States presidential election. (n.d.). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_United_States_presidential_election

Notgrass, R. (2019). Exploring America (2019th ed., Vol. 1). Notgrass Company.