Before the commencement of the American Civil War of between 1861 and 1865, the United States beheld the secession of the Southern States and the ensuing rise of the Confederacy to fight the Northern States that remained under the Union. Apparently, political, social, and economic disparities in the slavery system warranted the rise of Pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces that eventually took up arms against each other.
In The Political Divisions that Contributed to Civil War, Michael Holt insists that sectional divisions and tension over black slavery did not “produces war” in the United States (401). According to the author, conflicts over slavery did not materialize in 1861; on the contrary, they had long been present from the National to State levels. Hence, if it were merely a matter of blacks in bondage war would have come sooner. While arguing his point, Holt does not concentrate on what propelled the Union to declare war on the Confederacy. The man questions the logic behind the nation controlling its sectional tensions for so long only to have them spill over and “erupt into war” (402). To that end, Holt reckons that the causes of the Civil War revolve around the dismantling of the two-party system. In the “collapse”, the American public lost faith in the standard political processes and their eligibility to meet the “needs of voters” (Holt 403). Evidently, the doctrines that governed the American Revolution were still rampant as the peoples’ desire to protect the rights and liberties of Caucasians by eradicating tyrannical rule reemerged in the nineteenth century. Hence, the conflict went beyond the government’s control because each side viewed the other as the “subverter of republicanism” out to destroy the country’s social order and government (Holt 404). In that sense, sectional intolerance begot war since there was no “framework of two-party” political competition that would aid in restoring the citizens’ confidence that republicanism was securable.
The first assumption that Holt makes is that the Northerners and the Southerners were mostly similar since they shared the same notions of republicanism and democracy. However, while the South understood freedom as a white-only privilege, the anti-slavery sentiments in the North included persons of African descent into the equation. In concurrence, Charles Sumner’s 1856 speech on The Crime against Kansas accused the Southern politicians of being hypocrites for demanding liberty, yet they condoned the bondage of an entire race. For example, the then Senator of South Carolina Andrew Butler kept a female slave as his mistress yet stood to deny blacks their freedom (392). Sumner’s perceptions captured the feelings of most, if not all, Northern politicians who felt the slave-holding regions were defying the ideology of liberty on American soil. Additionally, as mentioned before, Holt disregards the relevance of slavery as the principal cause of the Civil War. The author’s article limits the role of slavery in such a way that it eventually becomes a distant echo with no grounds on which it could stand. Still, John C. Calhoun’s 1850 Proposal to Preserve the Union remedies the situation. If one is to believe in the supernatural, then Calhoun was psychic. The first line in his speech cautions the Senators on the fact that the “subject of slavery” would end in disunion if not “by some timely and [efficient] measure” (385). Evidently, the South was aware of the situation and even recognized the Northerners’ stand on matters of slave emancipation. Perhaps they even anticipate Sumner’s verbal attack that came six years later.
In conclusion, Holt’s decision to ignore the connection between black slavery and the American Civil War denies the country one of its richest memories: the time when all of the United States witnessed a battle for coloreds. Racial tensions remain relevant even today.
Works Cited
Calhoun, John C. "Ways to Preserve the Union (1850)." Cobbs Elizabeth, Blum Edward J., and Gjerde Jon. Major Problems in American History. Vol. I. California: Wadsworth Publishing, 2011. 385. Print.
Holt, Michael. "The Political Divisions That Contributed to Civil War." Cobbs Elizabeth, Blum Edward J., and Gjerde Jon. Major Problems in American History. 3rd. California: Wadsworth Publishing, 2011. 401-406. Print.
Sumner, Charles. "The Crime Against Kansas (1856)." Cobbs Elizabeth, Blum Edward J., and Gjerde Jon. Major Problems in American History. Vol. I. California: Wadsworth Publishing, 2011. 391-392. Print.
