Posted: February 14th, 2022

The primary cause of the Civil War was slavery

According to Stephens, the primary cause of the Civil War was slavery. Southern politicians aimed to counter the efforts of northern antislavery politicians who sought to impede the expansion of slavery into western territories. The Southern states derived immense profits from slavery, with regions like the Mississippi River valley generating a higher number of millionaires per capita than any other state. The economic prosperity of the South was largely driven by cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane, cultivated using slave labor. This economic reliance on slavery led to staunch resistance in the South against its abolition, complicating their ability to secure the labor required for their agricultural endeavors. These mounting tensions with the North eventually culminated in the outbreak of the Civil War. If Stephens were to have delivered this speech post-war, it is doubtful he would have expressed the same sentiments as his cornerstone speech. The conflict had brought about the end of slavery, and any such remarks would likely have been met with skepticism, possibly igniting further disputes as the North might have perceived it as a refusal to fully acknowledge defeat and the abolition of slavery.

On the other hand, Davis attributed the primary causes of the Civil War to economic interests such as taxation, the power struggle between the federal government and state governments, and the principle of state rights, rather than solely to slavery. Davis argued in favor of granting states greater autonomy to independently assess the constitutionality of federal actions, a concept known as nullification. The failure of the federal government to accommodate this idea led to discussions of secession and ultimately fueled the eruption of the Civil War, according to Davis. Notably, Davis was a Southern figure aligned with pro-slavery sentiments. It’s conceivable that if he had addressed the issue before the war’s conclusion, he would have also implicated slavery as a contributing factor, considering his Southern background and the prevailing desire among many Southerners to see the institution expand.

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