When Was The Civil War Started And Why?

     The Civil War was started on April 12, 1861 when Confederate Soldiers attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The Underlying cause of the war was two different and distinct factions debated at the time in both houses of Congress. Under the Jacksonian Doctrine, States should have the rights to govern their people in all matters concerning the welfare of the population. This is know as States Rights. In the newly formed Republican Doctrine, the Federal Government should have initial rights to govern the people of the United States with the States governing everyday matters such as police protection, road builds, and other matters delegated to the States. This is known as Federated Government. The southern stated opposed Federation because it would mean giving up the freedom of their states rights like tariffing goods across state lines.
     Slavery was NOT an issue of the Civil War until Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862. The underlying reason why Lincoln signed the proclamation was because several northern states, like New York, were beginning to agree that the South may be right in tariffing goods. New York and New England was beginning to build an industrial empire in textiles from the cotton it had purchased from the South before the war. Now they were seeing less cotton and concentrating on manufacturing federal armament (guns and ammunition) for the war effort. Although lucrative, they could not tax (Tariff) the federal government for these arms. So Lincoln waited for a Northern victory to sign the Emancipation Proclamation making slavery an issue of the war instead of States Rights. Lincoln got his wish after the bloodiest battle in Maryland in 1862; The Battle of Antietum.