Lincoln, and Other Causes of the Civil War.
The election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860 was the last straw in the South's tolerance for the North, but it was in no way the singular cause of the Civil War. A multitude of both short and long term causes of the Civil War created a sectionalist country, and strengthened the feelings of abhorrence between the North and the South. Issues such as slavery, Westward expansion, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and sectionalism in America were all key topics that brought about the outbreak of the Civil War. .
It is not uncommon to presume that the issue of slavery was the singular reason the South fought the North in the Civil War, but that is simply a generalization. The debate whether slavery should be legal or not was a long-term cause of the Civil War but it was not what the people in the South were fighting for. Slavery was a hopeless cause, and the Southerners knew this. Slavery was banned in so many states that it would inevitably fade away with time, especially because slaves were fleeing to the states in which slavery had been banned and they were emancipating themselves. The people in the South knew that fighting for slavery was fighting for a hopeless cause, but to them slavery represented much more than the ability to own colored people and make them perform labor. To the southerners, slavery represented their way of life, and their ability to protect themselves from a highly centralized government that believed very little state rights. The issue of slavery versus abolitionism creates a foundation for several more specific, short-term causes of the Civil War. .
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was a short-term cause of the Civil War that showed sectionalism, as well as demonstrated the power of the issue or slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was put into effect because Senator Douglas made up a plan for the territory in the West known as Kansas that boldly went against the Missouri Compromise of 1820.