The Impending Second Civil War?

I am worried. I am very worried about the state of our beloved union. Our nation has become increasingly divided, and all I see is a repeat of the 1850s leading into what became the American Civil War. I am a student of history; I have no degree, but I have dedicated the last five years of my life to learning our history, our Constitution and government, state governments, and our leaders of the present and past. To say the least, I am a historian. I’ve studied, very deeply, the Civil War, and the years leading up to the bloody contest, and sadly, I see extreme similarities between our age today and the age of the Civil War. But to understand the Civil War, you must go back to our nation’s founding.

On September 17, 1788, the new Constitution of the United States of America was ratified. We had moved from a Confederation under the “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union” to a Federation under the “Constitution of the United States of America.” What was the difference between the two systems? Under the Articles of Confederation, there were thirteen United States joined together for the purpose of liberty and defense. The United States of America was more like what we would call the European Union. A union of independent states (nations) joined for a common cause. The central government at the time was extremely small and weak, with only a unicameral legislature to govern the new country. The “Congress of the Confederation,” more formally known as the “United States in Congress Assembled,” was the governing body, and the leader of this body was known as the “President of the United States in Congress Assembled”; many people who like to claim that the eight men who held this office were presidents are mistaken, for these men held no executive power as our President does today. The men who held the office just governed the Congress much as a speaker does today. The states held most of the power. Whereas when the country made the switch to a Federation, not only was there a powerful bicameral Congress, but there was also a powerful President who acted as an Executive and a powerful Supreme Court who acted as a judiciary. The new central or federal government was much more powerful than the old government, and the states fell subordinate to it. The states still acted independently, passing their own laws and policies, creating their own constitutions, but their power was cut.

On April 30, 1789, the new government was established. George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States of America in New York City. President Washington made history that day, yes, as our first President, but also by being our first and only Independent President. Washington despised parties. During his farewell address at the end of his second term in office, he said, “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterward the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” You see, President Washington, while despising political parties, watched as two developed in our nation: they were the Republicans (Democratic-Republicans or Jeffersonians) and the Federalists. The Republicans were led by Secretary of State, and future Vice President and President, Thomas Jefferson, and the Federalists were led by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. The President’s warning was not just pure speculation; he had witnessed the division caused by party alignment. Both Jefferson and Hamilton served on Washington’s cabinet at the same time and debated fiercely. President Washington watched as Jefferson and Hamilton grew bitter towards each other and then started to hate each other. He thought if that could happen to his cabinet, it could happen to the nation, and he was 100% correct.

For most of early political history, both parties were bitter but still could compromise with each other. After the fall of the Federalist Party, there was a small time where the Democratic-Republicans ruled. But after the election of 1824, a contentious election and what Andrew Jackson called a “corrupt bargain,” resulted in John Q. Adams, son of President John Adams, being named President by the House of Representatives. There was a split in the Democratic-Republican Party. Those who followed Andrew Jackson, most of the common people of the U.S., became Democrats, and those who followed Henry Clay and John Q. Adams became Whigs; this was the birth of the Democratic Party (founded in 1828) and the Whig Party (founded in 1833), and the moment political party divides grew strong. For the next thirty-three years, the divide between parties grew strong. Towards the 1840s, the most divisive issue was slavery. Both parties had divisions within due to the issue of slavery. Most of the Democrats in the nation were strong proponents for slavery, but most abolitionists in the country were aligned with the Whigs. But the divide in the Whig party over the issue of slavery would ultimately lead to its downfall. In Ripon, Wisconsin, former Whigs met to try to form a new political party that was openly opposed to the expansion of slavery; and on March 20, 1854, the Republican Party was formed. John C. Fremont was the party’s nominee for President in 1856, and he won eleven of the 16 northern states, though he did lose to Democrat James Buchanan. In the House of Representatives, while the Democrats held a majority, the Republicans had the second-largest delegation with 90/237. (Democrat: 137, Republican: 90, Know Nothing: 14). In the Senate, Republicans only held three seats. But all in all, the first election they participated in was very good. They gained many seats in the 1858 mid-terms and ultimately replaced the Whig Party. During this time, the divide between the two Americas had grown substantially. After Republicans had gained seats in the United States Congress in 1856, the fighting and arguing began. It grew very intense and became extremely divisive. On May 22, 1856, Democratic Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina entered the Senate Chamber and attacked Republican Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with his walking cane until Senator Sumner was unconscious. The Brooks-Sumner Affair was the beginning of the political tension that sparked the American Civil War. Members of both the Senate and House of Representatives started to carry weapons to defend themselves against their enemies. See that word “enemies.” That is not a good word to be using in domestic politics. During the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln ran as a Republican against many opponents. The Democratic Party split into the Northern Democrats and Southern Democrats due to the issue of expansion of slavery and the right for states to secede from the Union. The Southern Democrats were the much larger force, and they chose Vice President John C. Breckinridge as their nominee. The Southern states, led by the Southern Democrats, promised if a Republican won, they were going to remove themselves from the Union; as we all know, Abraham Lincoln won the election, and seven southern states seceded from the union due to Lincoln’s victory, and four more after the Battle of Fort Sumter. This war resulted in 620,000-750,000 military deaths, and an unknown number of civilian deaths. In short, the American Civil War was the bloodiest war in American history (the single bloodiest day in American history was September 17, 1862, due to the Battle of Antietam, with 23,000 casualties in total).

Yes, the Civil War was caused by the issue of slavery; the historical evidence shows that fact very clearly. But if we look deeper than that, we also see the core issue here. The issue of slavery could have been debated civilly as it once was. However, people saw those on the opposing side as enemies and not as political rivals; they stopped seeing humanity in the people they served with. They stopped seeing Americans!

Let’s look at today’s political climate. At the State of the Union addresses given by President Trump and President Biden, both men claimed that our Union is strong, while at the same time slamming the other side and claiming that their party is right. They’ve politicized the one non-partisan speech they are supposed to give. And Congress isn’t innocent either. Representatives and Senators on both sides will yell at the President while he is talking. And while politics has been getting divisive since President George W. Bush started his second term, we are now in the late 1850s moment. Republicans won’t talk to Democrats, and Democrats won’t talk to Republicans. Members of Congress call people on the other side “the enemy.” Will the 2024 Presidential election be the final straw? I say it’s a huge possibility. But this time it will probably not be States vs. States, but Republicans vs. Democrats. This one will be a true Civil War. The first Civil War was a war between states; this will be the people of one nation and people of the same states fighting.

What is the solution? It’s very simple: elect people with common sense and who are educated in civics, search for civil discourse between you and those who disagree with you, contact your leaders and tell them to cut the nonsense out, and most of all, educate yourself in history and civics! The people in our government right now are not the brightest bunch we’ve ever had. I would argue many of them have never opened the Constitution. Don’t elect uninformed people. Talk to people who disagree with you. Don’t just stand outside holding a flag or a sign; be willing to talk about your beliefs and keep it civil. According to the 1st Amendment, we have the freedom to petition our leaders. If your leader is being divisive and spewing nonsense, contact them and tell them to stop; if they don’t, keep doing it until they listen, and if they don’t listen, start a movement to replace them. And finally, the most important thing is to educate yourself in history and civics. “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people…” - President John Adams. Dictators take advantage of uninformed populations to gain power; a prime example is Adolf Hitler. Our forefathers gave us a constitution on paper and printed it for a reason. There is a reason we have copies of it, so we can read it. If we do not know the boundaries that the government cannot cross, you better believe that they will cross them. If you don’t know your rights, they will be infringed upon. The generation that fought for our independence gave up too much for us to lose our liberty, for us to engage in a civil war for political power. “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” and “We are not, we must not be, aliens or enemies, but fellow-countrymen and brethren.” These are two quotes by President Abraham Lincoln that we must heed now, in this time.

And here is one more that I will conclude with by President John Adams: “Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”