Evidence prior to American Civil War

Evidence prior to American Civil War
      In the past, many questions have been asked on what caused the American Civil War. Interestingly, one and a half century later after the Civil War started, there is passionate debate regarding the "cause" of the Civil War. Based on documented historical facts, the militaries for North and South America were first created only from a small contingent of soldiers. Both contingents would have affirmed that the reason they joined the army was to stand against or pro the menace of slavery.
      The American Civil War was fought between the years of 1861 to 1865. This conflict resulted to many deaths and displacement. The origins and reasons of this war can be traced back to strains that were experienced early in the nation's history. Among the major reasons were, economic and social differences between the north and the south, the fight between slaves and non slave states proponents, the election of Abraham Lincoln, development of the abolition proponents and movement and states versus federal rights.
States versus federal rights
      States versus federal rights were two sides that emerged to oppose each other as early as the time of the American Revolution. These two camps were based on persons arguing for greater states rights and others who argued that the federal government required to be given more power. After the major revolution in America, the first constituted government in the HYPERLINK "http://americanhistory.about.com/od/revolutionarywar/Revolutionary_War.htm" \t "_blank"  US was operating using Articles of Confederation. During this period thirteen states together constituted a loose confederation with a very unstable federal government. However, due to rising challenges, the instability haunting this form of governance caused the then leaders to secretly come together and create a Constitutional Convention that drafted the US constitution. During this meeting, strong personalities like Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were absent at the convention. A considerable number of people thought that the new constitution violated and ignored the rights of states to act independently. They were of the opinion that states should have the liberty and right to choose if they were willing to adopt certain federal acts. This led to the idea of revocation, which meant that state unit governments would have the right to rule federal acts undemocratic. States were denied this right by the federal government. Nonetheless, those who were for proponents such as John C. Calhoun fought vehemently for nullification. Eventually, this group of leaders asked for secession when their proposal of nullification was defeated in the floor of the house.   
Economic and social differences between the North and the South
      Economic and social differences emerged between the North and South when Whitney Eli invented the cotton gin in 1973. This new development had economic...