Nullification Crisis

     The nullification crisis occurred during Andrew Jackson's presidency.  What happened was, when Jackson imposed a new tariff on the country, South Carolina refused to pay it. The state declared it unconstitutional and nullified it.  Although Jackson lowered the tariff , South Carolina still refused to pay it.  Some time after this, Jackson passed a bill allowing military action against South Carolina.  After that, South Carolina agreed to negotiate and on March 11, 1833 they repealed there nullification of the tariff.

State Rights

     State rights were a highly important factor in the civil war.  The primary reason of this is that this is the reason that many of the southern states succeeded from the union.  They believed that the federal government had too much power over states and that the states should have more power than the federal government.  This is why a confederacy was chosen for the succeeding states.
     In a confederacy the states have the majority of the power.  In the past, however this form of government has never succeeded.  It is not an effective way to run a country.  The states, when not given direction, all act on separate terms and have very different laws, causing chaos and confusion.  This he one of the reason many people did not want the south to succeed.

 

Slavery as a Cause

     Many people believe that slavery was the main cause of the Civil war.  However, this is not true.  The primary cause was the fact that the southern states where succeeding from the Union.  One of the reasons the southern states where succeeding was the great division between the north and south over slavery.  Because of that slavery is still a reason, just not the primary reason for the war.
     Another way slavery impacted the war was moral cause.  It drove both the south and the north into battle.  Both sides believed that they were doing the right thing to do with slavery.  Most northern soldiers believed that it was the proper thing to do to attempt to free those enslaved in the south.  Most southerners, on other hand believed, either for personal gain or for true belief in slavery, that keeping Negros in slavery would be the best thing to do.  Slavery drove both sides to fight harder.