Civil War

Civil War

"A Nation-people of similar characteristics and a community with its own territory and government." (Webster's, 613).   Less than one-hundred years after the United States had fought so passionately to become a whole, people found themselves breaking further apart from their neighbors and feeling a constant sense of turmoil within their society.   Images of the Civil War conflict involve men ruthlessly fighting against their own brothers, family against family, and constant tension between a nation divided against itself.   It was obvious that parts of our "nation" did not share many similar characteristics and were not always in agreement in government.   The cause of the Civil War conflict can be interpreted in different ways, yet there are a few key words that perhaps best help historians understand the reasoning behind this enormous tragedy.   The pre-Civil War period was a time where the American people yearned to shape their own character.   The Northern and Southern sections each began to notice a fatal change in one another; the South began to look at slavery as a necessity on which freedom would be based, while the North was committed to extinguishing slavery as a test of freedom.   Both sections found the other in a state of betrayal of the Founding Fathers and believed that what they were trying to accomplish was the "correct and proper" thing for their country.   One event that perhaps is a specific cause of the Civil War is the Dred Scott decision, one that questioned the citizenship of a slave and gave abolitionists opportunity to politically argue with the Supreme Court.   It is often seen as the "last straw" in the coming of the war.   Instead of solving the issue, it proved that slavery's fate could only be determined by war.   With this divided opinion on slavery, a strong sense of sectionalism was felt within the country.   The newly formed country did not appear to be homogenous; and strong provincial geographical differences began to emerge.   The diverse...