why did compromises fail to stop the conflict between the north and the south?
84091
As President Grant said in his memoirs, the South stopped working for compromise when they could no longer command political dominance of the country. Back in the early 1980's, the Commerce Department put out a series of books on the economic history of the United States, which brought up many aspects of early US history that are now forgotten.\n\nAfter the revolution, when the country was a bankrupted swath of states along the Atlantic Ocean, there seemed no way the country could survive economically. Then, the industrialization of the American Northeast was financed in large part by hard currency achieved through the export of cotton and tobacco. These were the only resources the US had in large quantities that had a monopoly throughout the world, and this was of course produced exclusively in the South. The grains produced in the Northeast and later in the Midwest were largely barred from European markets because of the British Corn Laws and other agricultural protective measures across the world.\n\nYou must remember, this was before the advent of sectionalism, and many across the country gave their political loyalty to the Whig Party, which represented Business both large and small. As a result, the South would reap huge profits on cotton (which thus became an industry only for those rich and powerful enough to hold large amounts of land and large numbers of slaves) and then invest those profits in the North to build industry. This also gave the South a certain amount of extra influence in how things were done across the country.\n\nAs the North began to also grow rich because of its expanding industrial base, leaders in the North began to also throw their political and economic weight around. In the 1830's, Northern and Midwestern sections brought about a very protective tariff against foreign manufactured goods and European luxuries (hence the name Sectionalism).\n\nAs we have seen all throughout our history, when a domestic industry is protected by increasing the price of foreign competition, rather than using the protection to increase their market share and long term health, American business will simply increase their prices to maximize their short term profits. This was the case here as well. The leaders in the North, because they needed semi-skilled labor which is not condusive to slavery, started to fund the political movement to abolish slavery which, when gold was discovered in California and people had to travel through Missouri and actually see the way slaves were treated, became an uncontrollably emotional issue. The South found themselves now having to pay higher prices for goods they could not produce themselves, even though they had made those goods possible, and found their peculiar institution which was the basis of their own wealth attacked as being immoral.\n\nThe two sections of the country had found themselves growing farther apart, and the differences were becoming too stark for the Southern leaders to deal with. While they defended African slavery as moral and humanitarian, they lived in mortal fear of becoming slaves themselves. The Whig Party began to unravel, with those in the North going to the Republicans and the South going to the Democrats. With the very idea of slavery being called into question, the South demanded a concession in the Compromise of 1850 that they felt would force the whole country to recognize the institution of slavery, the Fugitive Slave Act. This completely backfired on the South, because now to the people in the North, slavery was no longer just some bad thing that was happening far far away that you could pretend was someone else's problem (like Darfur today). The new law now required Northern communities to arrest and hold captive black people in their local jails with their local police for no other reason than because someone in the South said the black person was a runaway slave (there was no hearing, and no evidence allowed other than the statement of
158038
I would like to tell Lincoln not to deliberately start the civil war by senting a resupply ship to Ft. Sumter, because he knew this would provoke the South to  fire on Ft. Sumter. this would have saved 600,000 lives, then to use his negotiating skills to work out a solution to the problems of the time.The south would be alot better off today, because if you live in the south, black or white ,you have suffered ever since the civil war, the federal government not sending the funds to the southern schools, for example in 1867, two years after the civil war, the state of georgia reciieved like 13000 in federal funds and the state of michigan recieved like 18 million.What the south has today, is what the South has built itself. the federal government did not help rebuild the south like it did Germany and Japan after world war 2. this is why the southern states are like 30 to 40 years behind the their northern counterparts. the south suffered the most damage from the war (Atlanta burned to the ground,etc.) and recieved nothing to help rebuild it. So Black or White , if you live in the south ,you are still paying for that war that happened over 140 years ago.
989812
Lost cause. It will never be united. However, a civil war is impossible too. Most liberals don't even have the balls to bring up the FACT that the republicans have been literally stealing (yes, there's a reason CONservatives have been adamantly opposed to paper ballots) the elections. \n\nDemocracy is eroding and many people just don't care. Those losing their jobs, health care, etc, still haven't figured out who the right people are to vote for, much less how to participate in a civil war. \n\nNice thought though
792664
My Dear Yankee Friend,\n\n  You are correct it is an interesting question but I am afraid my answer would not be as nearly as interesting, especially after seeing the answers you have all ready received.\n   I was unaware that Secession was or is against the law.  Even though one of the main things solved by the War was the question from the founding fathers and Lincoln whether or not the Republic would survive.  It did!\n\n    I cannot believe the answers about equality and the other nonsense but the War did end slavery with the 13 th amendment.  I wonder how many people realize that the 14 th amendment was never legally ratified?\n\n    The War decided that agriculture was to be replaced by manufacturing.\n\n    The War decided how far the Union –Northerners-Yankees would go to enforce their will on others; that the rights of the citizen; the Constitution meant and mean nothing.  It proved that they are willing to sacrifice the lives and properties of civilians, has anything changed?\n\nGod Bless You and The Southern People.
487798
The battle was also for control of the rich lands in the West. Who would control them, the industrial North or the agrarian South. Further, States' Rights was a huge issue as well. Like most wars, economics was at the root of Civil War.
223621
In the 1840s things started heating up between North and South over general states' rights against the rights of the federal government. The issues adressed generally dealt immediatly with slaves. New states admitted to the Union had to be judged as "slave states" (slaves allowed) or "free states" (slavery prohibited). \n\nBoth sides wanted new states to be whichever side they favored because it would give them more legislative power in the US Congress. This led to bloodshed in many areas, particularly in Kansas, which became known as "Bloody Kansas". \n\nIn 1861, South Carolina seceded from the Union (said they werent part of the US any more) and started seizing federal property, including arms and munitions. \n\nOther states started seceding as well. Soon the seceded states formed what they called the "Confederate States of America", which came to be headed by Jefferson Davis as President. They attacked Fort Sumner in South Carolina and seized the fort, capturing it's inhabitants. This was treason.\n\nAbraham Lincoln (President of the US) immediatly called for 75,000 troops to put down the uprising. Then the Civil War started, eventually involving millions of troops. 600,000 men eventually died in the conflict, and the US was shattered for decades after the war. Remember, this war was fought to unite the Union, NOT for slavery. In fact, slavery was only addressed in 1862 when Lincoln set forth the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the Confederate states. By 1863 there were armed black soldiers in Union armies, serving with distinction. In 1865 the CSA tried to use black troops, but they were destroyed before the plan could be implemented.\n\nIn 1865 the final Confederate forces surrendered (General Johnston was the last to surrender, but with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee the war was pretty much over). Richmond, VA, the Confederate capital, was seized. \n\nLincoln began steps to rebuild and reunite the US. He planned to be kind to the newly reunited South and not punish them for seceding. Before he could start, he was killed by a man named John Wilkes Booth. \n\nThe years following became years of anger and hate for Southerners. The North oppressed and punished Southern insurrection with high taxes and legal oversight. This period became known as Reconstruction, and it really only ended around the 1970s, one century after it started.\n\nHope I helped,\nThe Wise One\n\nP.S. For more information check out http://www.wikipedia.com\nThey are pretty good, but it's better to read books...however that takes more time than I think you want to spend.
107564
Consider this- the North had the factories and the ability to ship goods produced by those factories for export, the South had plantations with a lot fewer ways of shipping the goods (cotton, etc.) to the factories where the cotton, etc. was made into other things(virtually no way to export goods).
494039
The war would have ended with a long and bloody stalemate, meaning that both countries would have continued from there with huge and crippling defense budgets with an enormous fortified border. South would have almost definitely become a protectorate of England because their economy was based very heavily on agriculture for export only. The north would not have had the excess investment capital for railroads across the west and intense industrialization. \n\nIt would be a very bad history for both sides.
205487
Yes.  Lincoln understood that the nation was threaten to fracture beneath his feet and he did what had to be done.  Of course it is important to understand that the South never really left the Union--the Constitution doesn't give states the right to seceed, but they thought they did and he had to impel them to return (in their minds.)
909895
The North considered it a victory because they defeated the confederate army in the field costing irreplaceable men and supplies.\n\nThe Confederate army considered it a victory because they thought they had fought to union army to a stand still since the union army did not follow them in their retreat back to the south.\n\nThe real reason the union army did not follow up, was because they had to split their forces after the battle.\n\nHalf the union army had to force march to New York City to put down pro-confederate riots and to keep New York from succeeding from the union.and pulling out of the war altogether
673971
I've read that it was the South's continued practice of slavery that turned off the English.  The British had outlawed slavery and didn't much care to be associated with it anymore.  Had the Confederacy abandoned that institution, I think you might have seen a slightly different outcome, but then again, slavery was one of the reasons (not THE reason, but ONE of many reasons) for the conflict in the first place, so...
148079
That's quite possible.  I've actually been seeing this coming for almost 2 years now.  I never saw a different outcome.  I think that preventing the civil war from happening will actually cause more harm than good.  I saw split the country up now -- even without a war.  The country was manufactured after WW1 and has no business putting together groups of people that dont really like each other.
1109324
It was a struggle between a strong central government vs a strong state government. States' Rights. Lincoln was afraid that if the South seceded from the Union, as a divided country, we would be open to invasion and take over by foreign nations. "United we stand; divided we fall,"  he said. So he wanted a Strong central government to keep a degree of unity and to keep us strong.\n\nDavis, on the other hand, had to argue that the power of government should remain basically in the hands of the states who were sovereign and who could overrule the federal government. That is how he justified slavery, namely, that slavery or no slavery was the job of each state to decide and not the federal government.\n\nLincoln won that debate via a Civil War, the argument still rages today--whether the states should have equal or more power than the federal government.\n\nI hope this helps.
177811
the Compromise of 1877 was an imaginary line to seperate the free states and the slave states during the civil war.
864608
I can certainly see from the answers you've gotten not many people know the history of our great nation,that is most unfortunate.\nThe South did not break away from the union based on slavery it was a greater issue one of economics one that had to do with 'states rights' and with how much tariffs they could charge.\nIt all really began to boil over in the Kansas debates of 1848,and spread even into N.Y. \nRead crack a book some of you folks sometime read the 'war of the republic' 50 volume set written/published by the United States war Dept. just after the war.\nThe Northern States also had slavery before during and even after  Lincoln's Emancipation proclamation.\nIn fact the Northern rich states and the U.S. Flag flew over more slavery than the the Confederate 'battle flag',and certainly more so than the poor mostly ag Southern states could ever dream of having.\nThe South won virtually every major,and minor battle-the South chose to up until the end remain in the South however the North was starving the South,and it had to go north which was the demise of the The Army of Virginia.
509566
The north put so many restrictions on the South, it was cruel\n\nGeneral Robert E. Lee said that if he had known what it would be like, then he would have kept fighting to the bitter end with his troops (I think through guerrilla warfare)\n\nbetter to die than to live in post-civil war south?
325920
Well, it definately didnt work...if it did, we wouldnt have had a Civil War in 1861.  It attempted to keep Slavery restricted to the South(32 30 lat., Now the Missouri Kansas border) Anything Kansas and above were free states and everythign below were slave states.It ultimately failed because of the Dred Scott decision which said that slaves were property adn not people, so they could not be freed(case originated in Indiana) and declaring the Compromise of 1820 unconstituional. The South also wanted to expand, due to the new territory gained from the Mexican war in 1848.  With the new territories in, once granted statehood would jeopardize the South's representation in the government adn started to complain again. This lead to another compromise in 1850 which also failed because of an abused concept of Popular Sovereignty.\n\nPopular Sovereignty was the idea that the state would choose wheether it would allow Slavery or not.  The states in question at the time were Kansas and Nebraska. Nebraska was mainly populated by Northerners and less Southerners since the climate waspoor for farming their stales.  But Kansas presented a problem.  Citizens in Neighboring Missouri fled to Kansas and claimed to be citizens in that State so that they could vote in Slavery.  THis also caused violence known as Bleeding Kansas.  Although the majority of the population in Kansas were Northern anti slvery people, because of all the illegal voting from people from Missouri allowed an illeagl constitution and the sitting President, James BUchanan failed to act.  By 1860, tensions were high, a person who threattened the Southern way of life was elected into office adn S. Carolina Seceeded...and the forst shotw were fired the following April.