Civil War

Terms and Concepts to Know

1. Polarization: Legislative, Judicial, Executive

2. Dred Scott Decision 1857

3. Kansas Nebraska Act 1854

4. Compromise of 1850

5. Missouri Compromise of 1820

6. Declaration of Independence

The inevitability of War: 1850 to 1861

Using hindsight the Civil War by most accounts seemed inevitable. Too many contradictions existed during the nations founding. The formative years saw the states guard their sovereignty while the federal government slowly aggrandized its power over them. For example, American politicians demanded that England respect American sovereignty and independence, while they unleashed unjust wars against Native American and the sovereign state of Mexico. Moreover, these same statesmen lauded the principles of democracy while women were not allowed to vote. However, the most blatant of all contradictions, the subjugation, exploitation, and enslavement of human life would eventually threatened the Union's existence. The acceptance of slavery since the drafting of the Constitution would slowly begin to polarize this nation and its three branches of government. For over half a century the Congress attempted to compromise over the issue of slavery:

Constitution (3/5ths clause and abolishing the Slave trade)

The Missouri Compromise of 1820

The 1850 Compromise

1854 Kansas-Nebraska

Dred Scott decision of 1857.

The Judicial branch, the highest court of the land, had to decide on status of Blacks in America. Dred Scott was a slave who petition for his freedom on the basis that he crossed into the northern territory with his master and subsequently the Missouri Compromise made him free. The Court Ruled: 1. Blacks had no right to use the courts 2. Blacks were property and as such Congress had no right to regulate property. Identifying Blacks as property was not earthshaking (given the mindset of people towards race relations) , however, taking the power from Congress to regulate slavery did polarize the two branches of government.

With the Congress and Supreme Court polarized, it was up to the Executive branch to hold the nation together. Unfortunately for the nation 1859 was a campaigning year. The presidential election would polarize people (and political parties) and when Lincoln was elected, not through the popular vote, but through the electoral college, the southern states began to secede. South Carolina left the union under the power of the Declaration of Independence: these United Colonies by right ought to be FREE an INDEPENDENT. Lincoln would become president of half a nation.

By 1860 the Supreme Court, Congress, and Executive branch were not functioning in unison. The art of compromise could no longer prevent War. Hence, the War became inevitable due to the Founding Fathers failure to extend democratic ideals to black people. This will become more apparent 100 years later when Martin Luther King Jr. moves to force the South to extend “real freedom” to Blacks!