Discussing Democracy and the Civil War Essay

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Civil War

A Fight for Democracy

There are many forms of government that exist in the world. From dictatorships to monarchies to democracies. However, the most challenging form of government by far is democracy. This is because it involves participation by the government and the people.

The word democracy has origins in the Greek language with the meaning 'rule by the people' (Patrick, 2006). Rome and Athens represented the precursors to modern democracies and served as the first 'democracies' of antiquity. Democracies were made in order to control the abuse of power people witnessed see from rulers. While democracy has ancient roots, modern democracy was only formulated during the age of Enlightenment, specifically the 17th and 18th centuries.

In this age, philosophers designated fundamental elements of democracy. These are: basic human and civil rights, separation of powers, religious freedom, and separation of church and state (Ostrom, 1997). Modern democracies have political officials elected by the people and in the case of the United States, an electoral college. The president of the United States wins his or her position through popular vote and electoral vote. That way the voice of the people is heard regardless of race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or gender. However, there was a time when people were divided in the United States and affected the way democracy was enforced.

For centuries black slavery was an institution from which the United States built the foundation of democracy. The South valued slavery because it fueled their way of life and propelled forward their economy. While slavery also provided money and trade for the North, blacks and white abolitionists sought to end slavery because of the violation of basic human rights and liberties. If everyone had a right to participate and vote in the United States, the slaves thought, why can't they be free and have the same liberties and rights afforded to their white counterparts. Although blacks and other people of color were not granted equal rights until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Civil War helped set the basis from which the country would eventually grant true democracy to all.

The United States Civil War was a trying and hard period for countless Americans. At the time, the country was unstable with several states having seceded from the Union as a consequence of the 1860 election. Many Southerners did not like that the country elected Abraham Lincoln as president. With this act of democracy seen as a 'final straw, eleven states seceded. Four of those, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee, seceding after April 12, 1861. Around this time, the Battle of Fort Sumter took place. "In April, Confederate soldiers attacked Fort Sumter. President Lincoln understood his duty. He must hold the United States together. Instantly he called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the Southern rebellion" (Kent, 2011, p. 23-24).

It was during this crucial time people exercised their right to choose their leader. In this case it was Lincoln and then later Jefferson Davis for the newly termed Confederate States of America. People exercised their democratic rights, but for vastly different reasons. The Confederate State wanted to maintain their world the way they saw fit and fought hard to keep it unchanged. However, their decision meant denying democratic rights to a large portion of the population, freed and enslaved blacks. The mere act of slavery suggested complete removal of human rights and created a society that stripped away the core of democracy.

A film series created by Ken Burns called The Civil War chronicles what happened during the American Civil War. The first episode titled, "The Cause," embarked on clarifying what had occurred to evoke such a strong response from the South. In an excerpt from PBS, it briefly elucidates the elements that set the war into motion.

Beginning with a searing indictment of slavery, this first episode dramatically evokes the causes of the war, from the Cotton Kingdom of the South to the northern abolitionists who opposed it. Here are the burning questions of Union and States' rights, John Brown at Harper's Ferry, the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the firing on Fort Sumter and the jubilant rush to arms on both sides (Burns, 2015).

The South depended greatly on slave labor to make money and grow their economy. Southerners set up the majority of tobacco and cotton plantations humid, hot areas in the South. States like the Carolinas and Georgia were key areas for tobacco and cotton cultivation.

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Without slave labor, the South would face and did face a drastic change in economy as well as a destabilization.

The North was less reliant on slave labor and more reliant on trade and industry. They did not need slaves as much as the South and were more moved by the work of free men like Frederick Douglass when he preached about his cause, the pursuit of abolition of slavery. Slavery was and has been a big determiner of equality within the United States. Descendants from slaves today still struggle with the idea of a true and fair democracy as only a half a century ago did blacks and people of color earn the right to vote freely without fear of violence and persecution.

However long it took to reach the equality, it had to start somewhere. Thanks to the American Civil War, slavery ended in the United States, at least from a legal standpoint. The Civil War helped begin the journey of blacks and anyone of color to have rights within the United States that would lead to the first black president, President Barack Obama. Going back to the Civil War, it is important to highlight the understanding of the South in regards to democracy. That is because they believed they had a right to determine how they would earn their livelihood and were not accepting of a government dictating how they would do it.

In an article discussing the ways the South could have won, motives for fighting in the war were discussed with emphasis on maintaining a certain ideal on both sides.

Northerners believed that America was the world's last great hope for democracy, and if the South destroyed the Union by force, that light of liberty might be extinguished forever. The South may have been fighting to preserve a way of life and to protect its perceived constitutional rights, but so was the North (Jones, 2016).

For the South, they felt they had to fight or else risk letting the government change a system that provided for them and helped them actualize themselves in the world.

That is the aim of a democracy. A democracy is not just meant to maintain a balance of power. It is also meant to help the people have a chance at actualizing what they want in their government. It is a chance for the people to have power. By voting and choosing political candidates, the American public has the right to choose a potential future for the American society, economy, and world view. It is interesting to think how polar opposite the ideals were and what were the motivations behind them. This leads to the next question.

#2

I am a person that is part of the more than 300-million-person population of the United States. The United States is filled with a diverse and varied population that has the right to vote so long as they are a citizen and over the age of 18. My role in ensuring an effective democracy lies in voting in political officials that will maintain a fair and true democracy. People like Trump for example, do not want a fair democracy. He wants to bring an end to certain practices that call for equality and liberty. A recent article discusses late-stage democracy and its potential to cause the introduction of a would-be tyrant. "And it is when a democracy has ripened as fully as this, Plato argues, that a would-be tyrant will often seize his moment" (Sullivan, 2016).

By people electing officials that may lead to further corruption of the government, the instability generated from bad choices and bad decisions made by corrupt politicians leads to a destruction of democracy as seen in Egypt and Iraq when democratic elections were held with little success. People have to decide whether or not to fight for the right to vote and to choose their political candidates without influence and corruption altering their choices.

Voter turnout has always been low considering the number of people that register. Even I admit I do not exercise my right to vote as much as I should. If I educated myself in key issues and advocated for political candidates I thought would better represent my interests, I would do better job at ensuring an effective democracy. By simply not participating, I am giving my rights away and guaranteeing the political candidate that wins is the one that is the most popular among those willing.....

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