The Causes and Events of the Civil War

April 12, 1861

The Causes and Events of the Civil War

I had found out that Civil War was led by conflict over issues of how much control the federal government should have over the states, industrialization, trade, and especially slavery. The Northern states (Union) and the Southern states that seceded from the Union and formed the Confederacy. These issues increased tension between Northern and Southern states. There were a lot of causes and events that also led to the Civil War. Causes and events such as the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Dred Scott Case, the Underground Railroad and the Election of 1860.

Wilmot Proviso, 1846, amendment to a bill put before the U.S. House of Representatives during the Mexican War; it provided an appropriation of $ 2 million to enable President Polk to negotiate a territorial settlement with Mexico. David Wilmot introduced an amendment to the bill stipulating that none of the territory acquired in the Mexican War should be open to slavery. The amended bill passed in the House, but the Senate adjourned without voting on it. In the next session of Congress (1847), a new bill providing for a $3 million appropriation was introduced, and Wilmot again proposed an antislavery amendment to it. The amended bill passed the House, but the Senate drew up its own bill, which excluded the proviso. The Wilmot Proviso created great bitterness between North and South and helped crystallize the conflict over the extension of slavery.

The Compromise of 1850. The annexation of Texas to United States and the gain of new territory by Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the Mexican War (1848) aggravated the hostility between North and South concerning the question of the extension of slavery into the territories. The antislavery forces favored the proposal made in the Wilmot Proviso to exclude slavery from all the lands acquired from Mexico. In addition, the questions of the slave trade and the fugitive slave laws had long been vexing. There was some fear that, in the event of strong antislavery legislation, the Southern states might withdraw from the Union altogether. The possibility of the disintegration of the Union was deprecated by many but was alarming to some, among them Henry Clay, who emerged from retirement to enter the Senate again. President Taylor was among those who felt that the Union was not threatened; he favored admission of California as a free state and encouragement of New Mexico to enter as a free state. Clay proposed that series of measures be passed as an omnibus compromise bill. Support for this plan was largely organized by Stephen A. Douglas. These proposals faced great opposition, but Daniel Webster greatly enhanced the chances for their acceptance by his famous speech on March 7, 1850. Taylor's death and the accession of conservative Millard Fillmore to the presidency made the compromise more feasible. After long debates and failures to pass the omnibus bill, Congress passed the measures as separate bills in Sept., 1850. Many people, North and South, hailed the compromise as a final solution to the question of slavery in the territories. However, the issue reemerged in 1854 with the Kansas- Nebraska Act, and now the factions are fighting the war.

The Fugitive slave laws were provided for the return between states of escaped black slaves. This law was apart of the Compromise of 1850. By it "all good citizens" were "commanded to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient execution of this law," and heavy penalties were imposed upon anyone who assisted slaves to escape from bondage. The actions of Northern states nullifying the fugitive slave laws or rendering were cited by South Carolina as one cause for secession.

The Dred Scott case, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1856-57. It involved the then bitterly contested issues of the status o f slavery in the federal territories. Scott, a black slave, personal servant to Dr. John