Emancipation Proclamation Tim Macko Feb 9, 2000 Hist 253 Paper 1 In Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, by Eric Foner, a new political party of the period of the mid-1800's is examined.
This was a party that had the partnership of the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It was not only his beliefs but the beliefs of this political party, the republican party, that helped build tension into what would become the Civil War. It was founded as a pro-active party, a party of doers, not sayers. They wanted people to act on behalf of their beliefs and make a change in the world.
Northern society was based on the idea of free labor. That a man could make himself in society by working hard. He could than climb the social ladder. The idea of a "self-made" man was what our country was founded on. The idea that any man can climb from nothing to be a prominent member of society.
It was this working, middle class that republicans believed was the backbone, the "defense" of American society. "Under every form of government there is middle class, neither rich nor poor, in which is concentrated the chief enterprise of the country."1 Democracy is the foundation of republicanism. To uphold the ideas and of basic democracy; freedom, social mobility, and free labor; these are the ideas that republicanism held as their own.
It was these protestant ideas that controlled northern society. It was this northern society, controlled by rich industrialists, that did not believe in slavery. The concept of free labor had swept clear across the New England states, they believed that the south's economy struggled because of their use of slavery. It supported laziness, a man did not have to work as hard if he had slaves working for him. The north believed that men held their futures in their own "right arm." It was the hard work ethic that created a man, and increased his wealth.
This wealth he creates would stimulate economic growth and therefore aid societal well-being. Hard work, social mobility, that is what created a strong economy, not slave labor.2 Northern society was the prime example of the social system the south wanted to create, but the south was the antithesis of this ideology. The two regions had considerably different economic and political ideas, and they were both heading in different directions economically. While the northern economy dealt with poverty through its idea of westward expansion, the south did nothing about this.
Its poverty seemed to grow, and it was becoming evident to the republican leaders that slavery just did not work.3 "Desolate", "polluted", that is how the northern republicans described the south.They blamed it all on slavery. There was no middle class, no working class. It is this class that creates society.
The workers who push industry along. They spend money, create money, and energize the economy.Without this middle class a society can not function. The middle class of the north desired change.
They desired a better status in society. It was a motivated social class. The southern laborers had grown lazy.They were complacent in their lives.
They did not crave social mobility. Happy with a lifestyle thrust upon them by birth, they lived impoverished. They had not a care in the world. They had grown up with slaves doing the brunt of the work and now were paying the price of years of laziness.The republican leaders of society began to recognize greatly the troubles that the south was experiencing.
These leaders began to push abolitionist ideas upon the south. Not only that, but they began to push a "northern" society into the south. Northern leaders than began to push their sights west. This was a major instigator in the Civil War.The south did not like that the north seemingly ran the country.
It was believed that the west was the new heart, the future, of American society.4 By turning the west republican and anti-slavery, the northern ideology would reign supreme and the southern ideology would fall by the wayside. Ethnocentrically than became a major factor in the argument of the south, but with republicans with northern ideas, there battle was futile. The south could not find a way to concretely voice their opinions. The argue for slavery was a knock on the northern ideas of free trade, "every man for himself.
"5 The argument was that it lauded greed and fights between the classes.It created competition in society. It was what was believed to be the beginnings of a materialistic society in America. This was not welcomed by the southerners. By the beginning of the 1860's a north south division had been created.
A division created on ideologies of free trade, slavery and social classes.A civil war was on the horizon. History Essays.
