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     At 4:30 AM the Confederates opened fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in
Charleston, South Carolina. The Civil War began. With seven states already seceded from
the Union, the confederate states took a strong stance. Just as the Confederacy was
formed in early 1861, the Confederate soldiers began taking over.
     
     On April 19th, President Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Blockade against
Southern ports. For the duration of the war, the blockade limited the ability of the South
to stay well supplied in its war against the North. Through the majority of the beginning
of the war, Lincoln noted the war as a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and
substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men.

     The Pro slavery South was, in many ways reacting to the North's attack on the
slavery and its expansion. Slavery is an institution that must continue to grow for its
survival. Moreover, expansion for the South meant growth, politically, socially and
economically, and it meant more political power.

     It is anticipation to want to make what one has larger and stronger, just as the
South wanted to expand and gain power. The Southern politicians did this through
political moves such as the Annexation of Texas, "Bleeding Kansas", the Ostend
Manifesto, and through the Dred Scott decision. All of which pissed of the North, and
convinced them that the south was trying to dominate the U.S with slavery.

     I believe that the war was fought over the moral issue of slavery. The North did
not care about the institution of slavery as long as it stayed in the South. South Carolina
seceded, because Lincoln was voted into office. The Republican party threatened the
South's expansionism and therefore Southerners felt that they had no other choice but to
secede.

     The Republican party had no intention of ending slavery in the South or freeing the
slaves; they just did not want slavery to expand, "Because the scene of intestine struggle
will thus be transferred from the south to the North." (N.Y Tribune 11/29/1860)

     The United States was divided into three groups by the time the Civil War began:
those who believed in the complete abolition of slavery, those who were against the
expansion of slavery, and those who were pro slavery. Many like to believe that the moral
aspect of slavery is what made it an issue.

     When the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, was elected in 1860, the South
felt that its expansionism was being threatened, and because expansion was vital to the
survival of slavery, they also felt their way of life was being threatened. Because slavery
was such a substantial part of Southern society, the South felt that they could not survive
without it.
     
     The central cause of conflict between North and South was slavery, but it was only
in it's expansion that it was given through politics that it became a powerful force that
could not be solved by compromise. The entrance of slavery into politics made it into a
public issue, and once the issue became public, the conflict had to be solved.

     One can debate all sorts of particular reasons regarding the causes and conflicts
of the civil war but it is only through eyes of the men who served can we find the true
resolutions. They experienced all of the terror and horror in which was an actual historical
event in which we look back on.