Disputes with in the Northerners and Southerners was evident during the Civil War with the Union and Confederate going to war over their differences about how the United States of America should be seen and about slavery. There were many American dreams throughout the founding of this nation the idea was something whites and blacks, men and women worked for. The Union and Confederate somehow even with their ideals about a free America and free trade had a different idea about the way President Lincoln viewed the future.
The issues regarding the Civil War were more than one it was based on political, social and economic disagreements between the South and the North, The Southern states but the biggest of them all were issues regarding slavery. The South opposed the idea of freeing slaves an idea they got through a platform created by the republican party for anti-slavery, although that was not President Lincoln’s intentions he wanted to maintain the union and he addressed it is his speech. “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong” (1) It was not a fight to an end but a way to live with it.
The dream of upward mobility began to grow in the North and South with much similar interest regarding success within their lands and industries. A new way to thrive and grow with in their own cultures, but as much similarities as the north and south had there were a few issues that they did not agree on. The South based their culture on relying on slaves to work on their and plantations where agriculture was the biggest form of life. They grew products that were rigorous and hard to cultivate without the hard labor of slaves. They lived a semi modest lifestyle where education was not important rather wealth and ownership. The more slaves you possessed the more power you had. They were known as the confederates white men and women who could not and would not change their ideals. The Northern states supported a Republican ideal of power, a strong hold on religion and they based their life and their hard work on their beliefs. The North hosted many more immigrants than the South, working people who relied on the American Dream. A dream that many white and black people would see, during and after the Civil war black men were allowed to enlist into the Army and many began to cross boarders to do so. The North restored their economic developments and focused on trade and business, they were able to create labor with shipping and exporting.
I believe that the Northern States and the Southern States depended on the dream that allowed them to hold on to their cultures and ideas of life. Regarless of the ups and downs they faced with in the Civil war they were able to continue and build, slavery was abolished, and the Lincoln reminds us why we belive in the Declaration of Independence “ They have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of men who wrote that Declartion” (2) Something we hold on to this very day.
(1) The American Dream, 96
(2) The American Dream, 101
