The Civil War of 1861-1865 was a time when the United States struggled intensely over what kind of nation it would be. The war initially arose from differences between North and South, or between slave states and (especially) non-slave states. These two sides argued over the right to continue the institution of slavery. The North wanted to abolish slavery, while the South believed it needed slaves to keep its plantations running and its cotton-based economy successful. After the Civil War, during the Reconstruction period, the abolition of slavery was followed by further reform movements to overcome racial inequalities and rebuild and modernize the South's devastated economy. Great changes occurred everywhere. The sum of these changes, at a constitutional and social level, has created a markedly different nation. Despite countermovements that sought to return America to a state that existed before the Civil War, by 1877 the nation had undergone constitutional and social revolutions. From the period before the Civil War until the end of Reconstruction, America underwent many constitutional reforms. changes that have changed both the shape of American democracy and the role of its government. The major constitutional conflicts concerned states' rights versus the power of the federal government. When the South seceded from the Union in 1860, the U.S. government responded with an invasion to quell the rebellion. South Carolina had seceded from the union because it believed the federal government posed too great a threat to its state prerogatives. All the Southern states soon followed. South Carolina's Declaration of the Causes of Secession, dated December 24, 1860, referenced limited power...at the heart of the document...and Southern resistance by the KKK. The racial divide between blacks and whites caused significant changes in America and represented a revolution. The period 1860-1877 was a time that represented major constitutional and social changes in America. The results of the reconstruction were immensely significant. The North got what it wanted, no slaves. The Southern states finally had to accept the 13th and 14th Amendments, and this advancement gave blacks in America many rights that whites had. The Freedmen's Bureau was also established and this institution helped freed blacks find housing. The power of the federal government grew and blacks gained their civil rights. There was, however, tension between blacks and whites given the racial divide. Overall, after the Civil War and Reconstruction, America was firmly on the path to the modern nation we know today.