The American Civil War - This Mighty Scourge of War

Introduction 13

promising freedom and self-sufficiency
because the freedom to earn a wage was
gaining national prominence. Because the
Democrats were the primary spokesmen

for the original definition of freedom and
advocates of the farmers, they came to the
defense of Southern traditions. Whigs, on
the other hand, supported free labor. As a
prewar Whig, Abraham Lincoln espoused

the virtues of free labor, remarking that
'There is no such thing as a man being
bound down in a free country through his
life as a laborer.'
In general, beginning in the 1840s,
Northerners viewed the South as an
impediment to realizing the full democratic
principles that the market had to offer. Most

anti-slavery Northerners opposed slavery not

because of its effect on blacks, but because of

the institution's effect on whites. It degraded

the value of free labor. Southerners, however,

came to believe that their fundamental rights

were being usurped because they were a

political minority. The Wilmot Proviso,

which in 1846 unsuccessfully attempted to

prohibit slavery in the territories, confirmed

Southern fears that individual rights were no

longer a constitutional matter, but a political

matter. The emergence of the Free-Soil Party

in the election of 1848, which promoted the

containment of slavery, also helped to

confirm these fears.

By the 1850s, Americans were searching

for common ground that no longer existed