The Civil War: Repressible or Irrepressible?

The Civil War was irrepressible because the vast differences between the North and South had influenced the creation of two separate nations. Since the Jacksonian period, southern states had threatened to succeed the Union. The founding of the United States had established the North into a strong economic community, whereas the south was seen as additional territory. The creation of a cotton industry in the South had created the reliance on slaves, whereas the North didn’t need slaves because their main industries were related to manufacturing. This split had caused the two sides to distance themselves from each other. The North resented southern slaves because it decreased northern wages, and the south resented the north because it feared that they would abolish slavery which would ruin their industries. Thus, both regions saw the other as an economic oppressor. These issues caused an inevitable split in 1860. This split could possibly have been suppressed with the Critenden amendments, but the identity of the northern Republican Party had forbade agreeing to such ideas. Overall, the identity of the North and South was very different, and thus Civil War was irrepressible.