Causes of
the American Civil War [Disputed Theories]
The conflict,
on this question of slavery . . . from the beginning, was not a contest between
the advocates or opponents of that peculiar institution, but a contest . . .
between the supporters of a strictly confederated government on one side, and a
thoroughly national one, on the other. . . . It was a strife
between the principles of states rights and
centralism. . . ." Alexander H. Stephens, 1868
"There is
a risk of referring any historical event to a single cause . . . [But] of the
American Civil War it may be safely asserted that there was a single cause,
slavery." James Ford Rhodes, 1913
". . . the
Civil War had one basic cause: sectionalism. . . . Our national state was
built, not upon the foundations of a homogeneous land and people, but upon
geographical sections inhabited severally by a provincial, self-conscious,
self-righteous, aggressive, and ambitious population of varying origins and
diverse social and economic systems; and the passage of time and the cumulative
effect of history have accentuated these sectional patterns." Frank L.
Owsley, 1941
"Let one
take all the factors traditionally presented . . . and it will be seen that
only by a kind of false display could any of these issues, or all of them
together, could said to have caused the war if one omits the elements of emotional
unreason and overbold leadership. If one word or phrase were selected to
account for the war, that word would not be slavery, or economic grievances, or
states rights, or diverse civilizations. It would
have to be such a word as fanaticism, misunderstanding, misrepresentation, or
perhaps politics. . . ." James G. Randall, 1947