The only way in which the United States may have been saved from war is if the North and South had been able to agree on a compromise. They had quite a few during the years leading up to the Civil War, but obviously, none of them managed to meet the needs of both sides, and they both felt as if they needed more than a compromise could offer.
One of the first big compromises over slavery, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, allowed the free and slave states to remain balanced with the admissions of Missouri and Maine as slave and free states. It also specified that the Louisiana Purchase be divided at 36 degrees 30 minutes, with free territory above the line and slave territory below. At the time, this seemed to be a fair and suitable compromise because both sides got a state and territory. However, their failure to continue the admission of states in pairs of free and slave led to an imbalance, and the dividing line between free and slave territory was broken in later compromises. This first compromise, which they had hoped would end their problems, was simply a temporary solution.
The next big attempt, the Compromise of 1850, was forged out of desperation to avoid secession and did not successfully smooth the tensions between the North and the South. It actually heightened them because it contained the Fugitive Slave Act, which caused a huge controversy in the North. It stirred up their emotions and sparked hostile feelings towards slavery. Also, Kansas and Nebraska were both set up as areas where popular sovereignty would be the deciding factor of whether the state was slave or free, and violence broke out in Kansas over this. The provisions set in the Compromise of 1850 did help avoid secession for a few more years, but it did not contain enough elements to pacify both sides.
Over the next years, there were many more compromises suggested, but they all failed because one side was not willing to make the sacrifices specified in it. The Wilmot Proviso, popular sovereignty in all areas, and extension of the Missouri Compromise line were all knocked down. The Crittenden Compromise, proposed in 1860, would extend the Missouri Compromise line all the way to the west coast, prohibiting slavery in the areas north of 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude. This was not put into effect because Republicans were afraid the South would go on a conquest to capture all of Mexico and establish slavery there. This was the last big attempt at compromise before states began to secede.
The south saw the hopelessness in gaining access to western territories through the federal government, and neither side was going to budge. Even if they had settled on something at that time, it, like the compromises before, would not have lasted long. Their hope to compromise had dissolved, and with it went the United States, as the southern states began to secede.
The American Civil War , also known as the War between the States or simply the Civil War, was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 between the United States (the "Union" or the "North") and several Southern slave states that declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America (the "Confederacy" or the "South"). The war had its origin in the issue of slavery, especially the extension of slavery into the western territories. Foreign powers did not intervene. After four years of bloody combat that left over 600,000 soldiers dead and destroyed much of the South's infrastructure, the Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and the difficult Reconstruction process of restoring national unity and guaranteeing rights to the freed slaves began.
\In the 1860 presidential election, Republicans, led by Abraham Lincoln, opposed expanding slavery into United States' territories. Lincoln won, but before his inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven cotton-based slave states formed the Confederacy. Outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincoln's inaugural address declared his administration would not initiate civil war. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession. Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy. A Peace Conference failed to find a compromise, and both sides prepared for war. The Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on "King Cotton" that they would intervene; none did and none recognized the new Confederate States of America.
Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, a key fort held by Union troops in South Carolina. Lincoln called for each state to provide troops to retake the fort; consequently, four more slave states joined the Confederacy, bringing their total to eleven. The Union soon controlled the border states and established a naval blockade that crippled the southern economy. The Eastern Theater was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaign into Maryland (a Union state) ended with Confederate retreat at the Battle of Antietam, dissuading British intervention. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, and the Union at Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lee's Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg. Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grant command of all Union armies in 1864. In the Western Theater, William T. Sherman drove east to capture Atlanta and marched to the sea, destroying Confederate infrastructure along the way. The Union marshaled the resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions, and could afford to fight battles of attrition through the Overland Campaign towards Richmond, the Confederate capital. The defending Confederate army failed, leading to Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
The American Civil War was one of the earliest true industrial wars. Railroads, the telegraph, steamships, and mass-produced weapons were employed extensively. The mobilization of civilian factories, mines, shipyards, banks, transportation and food supplies all foreshadowed World War I. It remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 750,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of civilian casualties. Historian John Huddleston estimates the death toll at ten percent of all Northern males 20–45 years old, and 30 percent of all Southern white males aged 18–40.
One of the first big compromises over slavery, the Missouri Compromise of 1820, allowed the free and slave states to remain balanced with the admissions of Missouri and Maine as slave and free states. It also specified that the Louisiana Purchase be divided at 36 degrees 30 minutes, with free territory above the line and slave territory below. At the time, this seemed to be a fair and suitable compromise because both sides got a state and territory. However, their failure to continue the admission of states in pairs of free and slave led to an imbalance, and the dividing line between free and slave territory was broken in later compromises. This first compromise, which they had hoped would end their problems, was simply a temporary solution.
The next big attempt, the Compromise of 1850, was forged out of desperation to avoid secession and did not successfully smooth the tensions between the North and the South. It actually heightened them because it contained the Fugitive Slave Act, which caused a huge controversy in the North. It stirred up their emotions and sparked hostile feelings towards slavery. Also, Kansas and Nebraska were both set up as areas where popular sovereignty would be the deciding factor of whether the state was slave or free, and violence broke out in Kansas over this. The provisions set in the Compromise of 1850 did help avoid secession for a few more years, but it did not contain enough elements to pacify both sides.
Over the next years, there were many more compromises suggested, but they all failed because one side was not willing to make the sacrifices specified in it. The Wilmot Proviso, popular sovereignty in all areas, and extension of the Missouri Compromise line were all knocked down. The Crittenden Compromise, proposed in 1860, would extend the Missouri Compromise line all the way to the west coast, prohibiting slavery in the areas north of 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude. This was not put into effect because Republicans were afraid the South would go on a conquest to capture all of Mexico and establish slavery there. This was the last big attempt at compromise before states began to secede.
The south saw the hopelessness in gaining access to western territories through the federal government, and neither side was going to budge. Even if they had settled on something at that time, it, like the compromises before, would not have lasted long. Their hope to compromise had dissolved, and with it went the United States, as the southern states began to secede.
The American Civil War , also known as the War between the States or simply the Civil War, was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 between the United States (the "Union" or the "North") and several Southern slave states that declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America (the "Confederacy" or the "South"). The war had its origin in the issue of slavery, especially the extension of slavery into the western territories. Foreign powers did not intervene. After four years of bloody combat that left over 600,000 soldiers dead and destroyed much of the South's infrastructure, the Confederacy collapsed, slavery was abolished, and the difficult Reconstruction process of restoring national unity and guaranteeing rights to the freed slaves began.
\In the 1860 presidential election, Republicans, led by Abraham Lincoln, opposed expanding slavery into United States' territories. Lincoln won, but before his inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven cotton-based slave states formed the Confederacy. Outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincoln's inaugural address declared his administration would not initiate civil war. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession. Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy. A Peace Conference failed to find a compromise, and both sides prepared for war. The Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on "King Cotton" that they would intervene; none did and none recognized the new Confederate States of America.
Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, a key fort held by Union troops in South Carolina. Lincoln called for each state to provide troops to retake the fort; consequently, four more slave states joined the Confederacy, bringing their total to eleven. The Union soon controlled the border states and established a naval blockade that crippled the southern economy. The Eastern Theater was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaign into Maryland (a Union state) ended with Confederate retreat at the Battle of Antietam, dissuading British intervention. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, and the Union at Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lee's Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg. Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grant command of all Union armies in 1864. In the Western Theater, William T. Sherman drove east to capture Atlanta and marched to the sea, destroying Confederate infrastructure along the way. The Union marshaled the resources and manpower to attack the Confederacy from all directions, and could afford to fight battles of attrition through the Overland Campaign towards Richmond, the Confederate capital. The defending Confederate army failed, leading to Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
The American Civil War was one of the earliest true industrial wars. Railroads, the telegraph, steamships, and mass-produced weapons were employed extensively. The mobilization of civilian factories, mines, shipyards, banks, transportation and food supplies all foreshadowed World War I. It remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 750,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of civilian casualties. Historian John Huddleston estimates the death toll at ten percent of all Northern males 20–45 years old, and 30 percent of all Southern white males aged 18–40.