Civil War
...based on facts. Regardless of what time
period one may write about, one will find enough information
about that time of period. The key is to put everything in a
logical and understandable manner. This paper will be about
the Civil War. I will try, to the best of my knowledge, to
discuss the North's and South's positions and Arguments for
going to war, their initial military strategies and their strength
and weaknesses. The paper will actually be a summary from
chapter 10 of the book Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil
War Era By: James McPherson, "Amateurs Go To War".
Before discussing the war itself, one must understand the
Union's and the Confederate's arguments and reasons for
going to war. Let's start at the beginning, when the South
was first showing animosity for the North, which eventually
led to sessionist ideas by the South. The Compromise of
1850 was drafted in response to the threat of a Southern
Convention, because of Zachary Taylors decision to carve
out two huge territories in the Far West and to admit them in
the union as free states. Henry Clay drafted the compromise,
which includes eight parts. "The first pair would admit
California as a State and organize the remainder of the
Mexican cession without "any restriction or condition on the
subject of slavery". The second pair of resolutions settled the
boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico in favor
of the latter and compensated Texas by federal assumption
of debts contracted during its existence as an Independent
Republic. Clay's third pair of resolutions called for abolition
of the slave trade in the District of Columbia but a guarantee
of slavery itself in the District. As if these six proposals
yielded more to the North then to the South, Clay's final pair
of resolutions tipped the balance Southward by denying
congressional power over the interstate slave trade...
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