Necessity Of The US Civil War Essay

, Research Paper

Necessity of the U.S. Civil War-

When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, the

south saw their economy and way of life threatened. They didn’t like

Lincoln, and didn’t want him to be their president so 7 states

seceded from the Union and formed a Confederacy. They were determined

to establish themselves as an independent nation. However, in order

for them to be that, they have to be recognized by foreign countries

as an independent nation and they have to survive as one long enough

to prove they are capable of it. At this point, Lincoln had two

choices. He could have left the confederacy alone and let them

attempt to become and independent nation. His other choice was to

prevent recognition of the confederacy as an independent nation by

defeating and occupying regions of the confederacy therefore proving

that they cannot defend themselves and cannot survive as an

independent nation. Lincoln chose to go to war with the confederacy,

which became the civil war. But was this a good choice made by

Lincoln? Should Lincoln have fought the Civil War? Yes, Lincoln

should have fought the civil war.

For one thing, one would argue that Lincoln should not have

fought the Civil War because of the great number of casualties. While

this may be true, there were too many unnecessary casualties, Lincoln

had no idea there would be so many. Many people thought the war was a

joke at first. People even dressed up and picnicked along the

battlegrounds of the First battle of Bull Run and watched the

fighting as if it were a theatre show. When Lincoln had first called

for volunteer soldiers, the terms of enlistment were only for three

months. No one had any idea the war would last for five years or end

with so many people dead or wounded.

Also, as president, it was Lincoln’s job to keep the nation

together as a nation. If those states wanted to secede from the

Union, they had every right to. However, they were a part of the

united states and if it took a civil war to make them become a part

of the united states, then that’s what Lincoln should have done.

In conclusion, Lincoln made the right decision when he decided

to engage in (what would eventually become) the Civil War. He had no

idea that it would last so long and result in so many casualties. He

probably thought it would be an easy task to go and take over the

confederacy. He could not predict what the war would have resulted

in, all he could think about was how to prevent the confederacy from

getting foreign recognition as an independent nation. The only way to

do that was to declare war.