A number of historians feel the Civil War was a result of political blunders and that the issue of slavery was not the cause of the conflict. However, this interpretation fails to consider the main causes of the Civil War itself: the expansion of slavery, and its entrance into the political scene. By considering and interjecting the personal opinions of people living in both the North and the South at the time of the Civil War, as well as the political decisions made, one can comprehend the reasons behind the Civil War thus determining its inevitability. .
Some people believe that the issue of slavery was not a major cause of the Civil War. Some argue that the Civil War was precipitated by careless decisions made by politicians, who caused people to react with emotions that were out of proportion to the actual issues involved. Others feel that the slavery issue could have been solved without war. The problem with these theories is that they do not recognize slavery as the main difference between North and South. One striking difference was that by 1860 the total number of African slaves in the union was around 4.5 million. Four million were slaves in the South in 15 states. There were 500 thousand free blacks with 250 thousand residing in the south. They also fail to realize that it was not simply political blunders that caused the Civil War, but the discussion of slavery publicly among politicians. .
The argument is that as you go farther west into the desert there was not sufficient water to grow crops and going north there were not enough hot summer days or enough nighttime temperatures above a certain point required for growing cotton. The best study on this issue is by Charles Hart. As he read through the Congressional Globe from 1846 to 1861 he noted any Congressman who made a statement about the issue of slavery expansion. Hart wrote the statement down arguing that what the congressional representative said represented his constituency on that issue.