Finally, the other causes of the war, which are directly related to slavery, bring about the primary cause of the war, and that is the expansion of slavery. A battle for a seat in the Senate, involved states’ right but more importantly new states’ right in choosing to legalize the act of slavery. When Democratic candidate Stephen A. Douglass squared off with Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln. Douglass proposed popular sovereignty in the newly acquired states, which meant that states would decide for themselves whether they wanted slavery to be legal in the state. Lincoln was opposed to Douglass’ views, but at the time did not want to abolish slavery totally from the South. His view was that slavery can be allowed in the states that are already slave states, but no other territory should become pro-slavery. Douglass ended up winning that battle, and got the seat in the Senate, but he did not win the “war” with Lincoln. Two years later, Lincoln ran for President with the same basic principals, and much to the chagrin of the Southern leaders and Southerners, Lincoln received the spot at the White House as President of the United States. Once this occurred, as documented, the Southern state secession began, which consequently led to the Civil War. Also, well documented, Lincoln passed his Emancipation Proclamation which ended up freeing all black slaves in the Southern territories as well, so his view on that idea of slavery changed from not expanding it, but to ridding of it completely. Lincoln feared the spread of slavery to the North, which would threaten the positions of free white laborers

First, the roots of the issue of states’ rights versus the authority of the national government can be associated with slavery. Southern states believed that new territories should decide for themselves if they wanted to legalize slavery. Of course, this feeling was a precedent because the South wanted slavery to expand. The national government, which had a Northern majority, was mostly against the idea of giving new territories and new states the right to decide on slavery. The North wanted slavery to be abolished everywhere, but if they could not be successful at that cause, they were going to stop the expansion. Also, the South believed that states should be run by their own government, with not as much nat

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