IndexDiscussionSlavery as a Constitutional RightConclusionIntrastate conflicts and interstate conflicts are many times complicated issues and arise from multiple grievances that have accumulated over the course of years, decades and even centuries. The American Civil War is not a single-issue conflict, but a conflict that has simmered for nearly 60 years over a number of issues: slavery, tariffs, states' rights in the Union, enlargement of the Union, imbalance and Congressional inertia, the clash between Northern unitarianism and Southern regionalism. The American Civil War was a conflict between Northern and Southern states, with the North fighting to preserve the Union, the South fighting for their right to own slaves and preserve their decision to leave the Union. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Discussion The causes of a conflict can be many and varied as there are many tensions and issues that remain unresolved for a period of time between the opposing parties. Sometimes it is very difficult to distinguish what the crucial issues are that made the conflict possible. In the case of the American Civil War (1861-1865) there were two separate sides in the North and the South. The growing disparity between the Northern and Southern states in terms of wealth and development, with the North having a large protected manufacturing industry by high tariffs on import duties. This allowed the North free access to internal markets and enabled the accumulation of wealth. The South, on the other hand, was heavily dependent on agriculture, and the backbone of the South's agricultural economy was slaves. Trade and manufacturing made up a small part of the South's economy, and the South also depended on Northern banks and Northern manufactured goods. The South also promoted free trade in the Union and opposed protectionist tariffs that made purchasing goods from the North expensive. The economies of the North and the South were not in direct competition, but were complementary and co-dependent. The United States Constitution allowed slavery and, to provide certainty for the Southern states, Congress reached the so-called “Missouri Compromise” which had a dividing line where new free states were allowed and where new unfree states were allowed. The Missouri Compromise kept the number of slave and non-slave (free) states in balance and became null and void after the addition of new free states south of the Missouri line. With the addition of the new states of Kansas and Nebraska, the Northern and Southern states entered into a new conflict over how the states should be ordered (free, not free), and a proxy armed conflict erupted between abolitionist and pro-pro -slavery. To resolve this conflict, the United States Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) which allowed new territories to decide on slavery through popular sovereignty (referendum), bypassing the Missouri Compromise. This caused an uproar among abolitionists who were dissatisfied with the agreement reached with the South. The Kansas-Nebraska Act did not reduce the level of conflict in the new states, as abolitionist and pro-slavery groups waged guerrilla warfare until 1861. Slavery as a constitutional rightThe North American states gradually abolished slavery over a period between 1774 and 1804. Slavery was not a widespread practice in the North nor were the North highly dependent on their labor. In 1806, Congress also banned the importation of new slaves from Africa, thus limiting the origin of slaves only to populationsof slaves existing in the United States. Many in the Union hoped that in time slavery would be phased out and abolished over time. The different vision of how society should be organized between the North and the South on the issue of slavery divided the Union into two camps. The South insisted that slavery was a way of life in the South, while Northern states asserted that slavery had no place in the Union. This issue became a heated issue when the abolitionist (anti-slavery) movement in the North beginning in the 1830s came into direct confrontation with the Southern states by actively interfering in matters of status and property by supporting the smuggling (freeing) of slaves and transporting them to the North via the so-called Underground Railroad which helped 40,00-100,000 slaves reach freedom, causing losses to Southern slave owners. Abolitionists were also involved in violent, armed clashes (guerrilla warfare) with pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas and Nebraska from 1851 to 1861. John Brown's failed attempt to instigate a slave revolt at Harper's Ferry in 1859 only galvanized the Southern states against the Northern states and their interference in their affairs. Slavery was repeatedly upheld by Congress and the Supreme Court as constitutional, as in the Dred Scott decision, when a slave owner could assert his right to own a slave in a free state. In a speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln during his inaugural address on March 4, 1861 he stated his position towards slavery in the Union: “I declare that – I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no legal right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861 The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment near the end of the Civil War in 1865, after considerable effort on the part of President Lincoln, only proves that slavery was not the primary cause of the war, and if that was the fact then that the Thirteenth Amendment would have been passed much sooner if this had been the unifying element of the war. The establishment of the Republican Party in 1854 and the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 caused a split in the Democratic Party over the issue of slavery in the Union. The split in the Democratic Party paved the way for the creation of the Republican Party which had a strongly united vision of the role of the Union and that of Congress. He also espoused the abolition of slavery throughout the Union as well. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, who was a staunch Republican, aroused fears in the Southern states that during his term Congress would abolish slavery. Difference of opinion on the role of the Union in the affairs of the states between the North and the North South. Over time the North and the South have developed differently economically and socially, placing the North and the South in direct comparison with each other. You might think that abolishing slavery at the federal level was possible through Congress, but there was no political will to impose the will of the majority on the minority of Southern states. In the same inaugural address, Lincoln explained the split in the Union over the issue of slavery: “One part of our country believes that slavery is right and should be extended, while the other believes that it is wrong and should not be extended. ” - Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861 The Southern States promoted self-government with as little interference as possible from the.