Guerra Civil

Final Exam Essay: Civil War
Each war, whether it is a civil war or another war between two different countries, has many causes which initiated it and the same wars have some long lasting effects. Salvery was the main cause of the civil war.
The Civil War was the bloodiest, most violent war in all of America's history. It pitted
brother against brother and father against son and causedmore deaths than all of America's wars before or since combined. The cause for the Civil War was not any single event or action, but a combonation of many events and actions. It was a sort of snowball effect, but this snowball had a rock in the center - slavery. Slavery was probably the largest single contributor to the feelings of violence and hatred between the North and South. The other eventsthat led to the civil war are what really drove people over the edge, and some were more influential than others.
The first of these was the Compromise of 1850. As a result of the United State's victory
in the Mexican War, it had acquired a vast territory. At the time, California was applying for statehood, which proposed a grave problem to the government: keeping the balance of Slave and Freestates. Also coming into play were the Fugitive Slave Laws which had been vexing the government for a long time. President Taylor was among a group that felt that accepting California as a free state would not upset the balance of Slave/Free states in the Union and felt that the South would not be inclined to withdraw from the Union, which was one of the biggest fears among the government of thetime. The Compromise proposed that states entering the Union should be allowed to vote on the option of coming in as a Free or Slave state. This idea became known as "Popular Sovereignty." The solution to the problems presented was devised by Henry Clay. He thought that California should be entered into the Union as a free state and all other incoming territories would vote. He also proposed morestringent Fugitive Slave Laws and the banishment of slave trade from the District of Columbia. Last but not least included in this compromise was the plan to settle the boundaries of Texas and assume its $10 million debt. The next problem that led to the Civil war was the Dred Scott Decision. Dred Scott was a black slave that lived for 5 years in Illinois with his master. He sued for his freedombased on his prolonged stay on free soil. The Supreme Court heard the case and ruled that since Dred Scott was a black slave, he was not a citizen and therefore not even allowed to sue. The Court took the ruling further saying that since a slave was property, they could be taken into any territory and be held there under the laws of slavery. The ruling was based on the 5th ammendment which deniedCongress the right to strip people of their property without due process of law. Southerners were pleased with the victory in the case, but abolitionists all over were horrified at the idea that slavery could legally spread anywhere in the country. Much friction between the North and South was caused by this decision. Another problem was the Kansas-Nebraska Act. When the territory of Nebraska wasproposed to enter the Union, more squabbling between the supporters of the North and South broke out. Stephen Douglas proposed a solution. If they split the territory into two states, Kansas and Nebraska, and allowed popular sovereignty to work its magic, then everything would be fine and dandy. The only problem with this idea was that the proposed territory entering the Union was above the 36 30'line that the Missouri Compromise had stated was the boder for slave states. Most of the North was deeply opposed to this, and the south was supporting it, so more boiling blood leading to the Civil War. John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry occurred in October of 1859. Brown's goal was to seize the federal arsenal in order to spark a slave uprising and try to end slavery. During the battle for the...