War Between the States
From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia
Background
With the demise of the Whig Party and the split of the Northern and Southern branches of the Democratic Party, the opportunity afforded itself for the recently organized Republican Party to increase its political power in both chambers of Congress and to successfully elect Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency. Radical Abolitionist Wendell Phillips acknowledged that the Republican Party was "a sectional party, organized against the South." Several other leading Republicans even went so far as to advocate civil war in order to keep the Southern States in a condition of subordination to a Northern majority.
Southern leaders, such as John Caldwell Calhoun, had warned that if the North ever gained control of the federal Government the rights of the Southern people would be lost. In the Republicans' pledge to confine slavery within the existing States and to prevent its spread into the common Territories was perceived an intent to destroy the rights of the Southern people wholesale. Many Republicans, such as Lincoln the former Whig and Henry Clay admirer, also openly advocated a high tariff and internal improvement system (which Clay had named, "The American System"). Historically, high tariffs benefited Northern industry and had adverse effects on the price of exported Southern cotton.
Consequently, the conflict between the North and the South had much more to do with differing views on the relation of the States to the federal Government, the extent of State power, and economics rather than the issues of slavery or Negro civil rights. In fact, some of the Northern people deplored Abolitionism and were opposed to Negro equality. Even Lincoln openly declared himself in opposition to Negro citizenship. Most of the Northern States had various anti-Negro laws on the books and Lincoln's own State of Illinois altered its constitution in 1862 to prohibit the immigration of free Blacks entirely.
Significant Battles
Battle of First Manassas (Bull Run)
Battle of Second Manassas
Battle of Gettysburg
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