Civil War Fault, Dissertation – Discussion Example

Civil war imposed huge social and economic losses on both the North and the South. Even though North was on the right side of the history but the blame for the war is shared by both sides. Even though slavery was unethical but one cannot ignore the economic aspects of the issues. The economy in the South was highly dependent upon the slaves and one could not expect South to take swift and drastic measures to abolish slavery, given the huge economic stakes involved. A better alternative might have been to slowly change public values and opinions as was observed with the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The South was wrong to take efforts to undermine the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln and threaten national unity through political blackmails such as secession threats. While states have rights to govern themselves as they see fit, they cannot rule federal acts as unconstitutional.

The pro-slavery elements in the South also found justification in religion and while their argument might not have been wrong in the light of Bible’s teachings, the founding father had made it clear that state and church are separate. Thus, South’s attempts to gain support for their laws through religious elements went against the spirit of the separation of the church and the state. But South did benefit from the fact that the constitution provided few or no rights to African Americans in areas of citizenship and labor rights and the decisions of state and federal courts also supported the Southern cause. While Civil War ended up being North’s victory and the history now portrays North in a more favorable light than the South, the facts on the ground in the years leading to the Civil War favored South’s cause more than the North’s.