The major cause of the Civil War was the debate on Slavery.
This seemed to just fuel the fire in everyone's hearts around the country. The southern states believed this practice to be the body and blood of the American spirit. They thought it to be vital to their economy, since they didn't follow the new trend of becoming industrialized. The South saw the slaves as property and not as actual people. The North saw it differently though. People in the North believed in the fact that every man was created equal. The North was more industrialized and didn't really have a use for slaves. These two conflicting beliefs would leave a newly founded nation divided.
This seemed to just fuel the fire in everyone's hearts around the country. The southern states believed this practice to be the body and blood of the American spirit. They thought it to be vital to their economy, since they didn't follow the new trend of becoming industrialized. The South saw the slaves as property and not as actual people. The North saw it differently though. People in the North believed in the fact that every man was created equal. The North was more industrialized and didn't really have a use for slaves. These two conflicting beliefs would leave a newly founded nation divided.
Another big issue was how the United States was supposed to split up the number of slaves states evenly among the number of free states. The issue was first resolved when the United States issued the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise consisted of the North and South, free and slave, disputing over rights to the newly found state of Missouri. Missouri wanted to become a slave state, but that would make it so that the amount of slave states outnumbered the amount of free states. A man named Henry Clay finally came up with the Missouri Compromise, which would even the number of slave states and free states again. It would allow Maine, who also wanted to become a state, to become a free state and Missouri would become a slave state. The agreement would also draw an imaginary line along the border of the southern states and the northern states. Missouri was the only exception to this rule because it laid above the line in northern territory. This line determined which states would become free and which would become slave.
The last major cause of the war was the Presidential election of 1860. This election would decide if the Union would still exist. The Democratic Party was split. Representing the northern Democratic Party and the fight against slavery was Stephen Douglass. Representing the southern Democratic Party and the fight to uphold slavery was John C. Breckenridge. The Republican Party decided that it was best to only have one representative. They chose Abraham Lincoln, who supported the vanquish of slavery. Lastly, there was John Bell who represented the Constitutional Unionist Party which was composed of moderates from both the North and the South. Lincoln won every state in the North. He didn't appear on the ballots in the South due to the fact that he wanted to abolish slavery. But, since the North was more heavily populated, he got the majority of the votes anyway.