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The American Civil War

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The American Civil War

The American Civil War was arguably inevitable because of how deep the divisions were both in the North and the South, especially related to slavery. The 1850 Compromise created a temporary balance between free states and slave states, which only fueled sectional tensions. Though the Compromise brought California in as a free state, it did so with the Fugitive Slave Law, which enraged abolitionists and galvanized the abolitionist movement in the North (Kreis,2024).

This law stated that escaped enslaved people must be returned to their owners even if caught in free states, exacerbating a divide in the nation. The increased enforcement of this law led to violent confrontations and further alienated the North from the South, making conflict seem inevitable. The failure of the Compromise to solve the slavery question proved that the nation was headed for war.

The 1857 Dred Scott Case put an even bigger wedge in national unity by determining that enslaved or free African Americans were unable to have U.S. citizenship, and Congress had no power to forbid slavery in the regions. The Missouri Compromise was essentially shattered by this ruling, which enraged the Northerners and strengthened Southern pro-slavery forces (Booth, 2024). By invalidating congressional authority to legislate on the spread of slavery, the ruling raised sectional tensions. It underscored that political and legal remedies would be inadequate to resolve the sectional conflict.

The decision was understood by many in the North as proof of a “Slave Power” conspiracy to nationalize, and thus preserve, slavery, fueling regional tensions beyond their already hostility intensity. The fact that the judicial system provided no answer only intensified the growing divide and the sense that there was no option but war. The country edged closer to armed conflict with every failed effort at Compromise.

The tensions created by the Compromise of 1850 and by the Dred Scott ruling made it more obvious that the United States was on a road that it could not avoid, ending in civil war. With each effort at Compromise only deepening sectional divisions, war emerged as the ultimate way to resolve the country’s most pressing conflict, which was slavery.

References

Booth, J. J. (2024). The Cycle of Delegitimization: Lessons From Dred Scott on the Relationship Between the Supreme Court and the Nation. UC Law SF Scholarship Repository. https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly/vol51/iss1/3/

Kreis, A. M. (2024). Rot and Revival: The History of Constitutional Law in American Political Development. Univ of California Press.

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Question

Week 4 Discussion 

Required Resource

Initial Post Instructions
In preparation for the initial post, consider two (2) of the leading causes of the American Civil War:

  • The Compromise of 1850
  • The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin 1852
  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
  • The Dred Scott Case of 1857
  • The Lincoln Douglas Debates 1858

Then, in one (1) to two (2) paragraphs, address one (1) of the following:

  • Based on the historical facts given your two (2) selections above, assess if the American Civil War was inevitable.
  • Analyze if the United States Supreme Court can settle legal and moral issues through judiciary review. In your response, provide a documented example of a modern parallel of a legal or moral issue settled by the United States Supreme Court.
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