Don's Home History American Civil War Causes

Many of my southern friends say that slavery was not the reason for the Civil War.
Lincoln basically says that his priority was in saving the Union in his 1962 letter to Horace Greeley (NY Tribune Editor). See below.

There were a number of bills before congess in the 1940's that benefited the north.
Foremost among these bills was the Homestead Act, a popular measure regularly debated in Congress since the 1840s. This law provided free title to up to 160 acres of undeveloped federal land outside the 13 original colonies to anyone willing to live on and cultivate it. Southerners had for years opposed the idea because it would severely hamper any opportunity to expand slavery into the areas where settlement would be likely.

The transcontinental railroad linking the East and West had, like the homestead bill, been heavily debated by pre-war Congresses. Southerners wanted a railroad built along a southern route

Tariffs were also an issue.
The Panic of 1857 led to calls for protectionist tariff revision.
This protectionist policy benefited the North while hurting the South, which had to pay higher prices for manufactured goods and faced potential retaliation from other countries on their agricultural exports.
In 1860, the economic value of slaves in the United States exceeded the invested value of all of the nation's railroads, factories, and banks combined.
On the eve of the Civil War, cotton prices were at an all-time high. The Confederate leaders were confident that the importance of cotton on the world market, particularly in England and France, would provide the South with the diplomatic and military assistance they needed for victory.

• September 1850 - Compromise of 1850
  Key provisions:
  Admitting California as a free state.
  Enacted a stronger Fugitive Slave Act. Returning escaped slaves.
• 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe, publishes "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
  The novel became the best-selling book of the 19th century, galvanizing the abolitionist movement.
• In the 1850's there's a series of disagreements over whether new states could be free or slave. The Missouri Compromise and others.
• 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court Case.Stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and, therefore, could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. The opinion also stated that Congress had no authority to ban slavery from a Federal territory.
• November 6, 1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected president.
• December 20, 1860: South Carolina secedes from the Union.
• February 1861: The Confederate States of America is formed, and Jefferson Davis is elected its provisional president.
• April 12, 1861: Confederates fire on Fort Sumter, initiating the Civil War.
• July 21, 1861: The First Battle of Bull Run (or Manassas) is fought.
• March 8-9, 1862: The Battle of Hampton Roads sees the first battle between ironclad warships, the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia.
• August 22, 1862: Lincoln letter to Horace Greeley (NY Tribune Editor).
  Lincoln's priority was to save the union.
  If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.
  See: Letter to Horace Greeley
• September 17, 1862: Antietam - The deadliest one-day battle in all of American military history. Although it ended din s stalemate, Antietam gave President Lincoln enough confidence to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which redefined the Civil War.
• January 1, 1863 Emancipation Proclamation ,to free slaves in rebellious states.
• July 1-3, 1863: The Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg is a major turning point and ends the Confederacy's last invasion of the North.
• Late 1864 William Tecumseh Sherman, major general of the Union Army conducts his "March to the Sea". Atlanta to Savannah, GA
  His forces followed a "scorched earth" policy.
• April 3, 1865: Union forces capture Richmond and Petersburg, the Confederate capital.
• April 9, 1865: Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House.
• April 14, 1865: President Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.