Civil War

"The Civil War was not inevitable; it was the result of extremism and failures of leadership on both sides." Asses the validity of this statement, using the following documents and your knowledge of the period from 1830-1861.

This civil war was pretty much unpreventable over hundreds of years, if politicians had done things differently in the hundreds of years up to the war its almost impossible to predict what would have happened and no one really saw the civil war coming until the decades right before it. During those few decades many things in government happened that really kick started the Civil war and could have been prevented. The Kansas-Nebraska act introduced during the wrong time because slavery was such a touchy issue caused an uproar in the north and even a full scale war in Kansas. The insane John Brown's raid of Harper's Ferry was considered to be a catalyst to the war(Document H). The Dred Scott case where the supreme court ruled that a slave is property just like livestock enraged the north even more, a win for the south encouraged them to not even seek compromise. "A house divided against itself can not stand." "I do not expect the house to fall but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing" Abraham Lincoln unable to compromise with the other side was a huge failure in the starting of the war(Document F).

The Kansas-Nebraska act introduced to congress by Stephen Douglass and signed in to law caused huge problems. Slavery was already a very touchy issue but he was pressured by southern senators to introduce it and even though it was opposed by most northerners it was signed into law because of the majority of southerners. Because this nullified the Missouri Compromise the north was very angry and a bloody war broke out in Kansas. Douglass believed that the country could forever remain split between slavery and free states and believed the power lied in the states to choose either(Document G), he believed in popular sovereignty(Document D). As seen in the Bleeding Kansas this was not true and because of this failure the south moved even closer to secession.

There were many other non-political actions that helped kick start the civil war. Uncle Tom's Cabin written by Harriet Stowe was a graphic anti slavery book which managed to make it around the world giving Britain and other countries a negative view on the south. It brought emotions and the idea that slaves were not property into the debate increasing the tension between the north and south even further(Document C). Another event not centralized or caused specifically by the government but that could have been prevented or at least hushed by the government was John Browns raid of Harper's Ferry. He brought the war against slavery to a new level, "If John Brown did not end the war that ended slavery, he did at least begin the war that ended slavery" Frederick