The Civil War and Andrew Jackson

Because we had a Civil War, most believe that it was unavoidable.  A Civil War was baked into the Constitution because of the three-fifths rule and the allowance of the slave trade to proceed until 1808.  Two very different regions had joined forces to leave the British Empire.  Independence required unity but the cultures were not easily united.  It's an excellent point.  I've been on the receiving end of many lectures that outline the inevitability of the Civil War.  And yet, the United States is the only country that fought a Civil War to abolish slavery.  Russia was able to end serfdom (a slightly less onerous form of slavery) through legislation and compensation.  Many other countries didn't even offer the compensation when ending the practice.  The British Empire had a system whereby slaves were transformed into 'apprentices' for a set period of years and then freed.

 

The United States suffered a lack of leadership in the 1850s.  Zachary Taylor, father in law of future Confederate President Jefferson Davis, had the misfortune of dying while the Compromise of 1850 was being debated.  His death allowed it to pass in a form he had opposed.  Millard Fillmore assumed the presidency and mostly kept the seat warm for Franklin Pierce.  Pierce blithely triggered Bleeding Kansas with the ill-fated Kansas-Nebraska Act.  Moreover, he proposed purchasing Cuba to extend slavery further south.  It is hard to believe that he was born and raised in New Hampshire, a state that began abolishing slavery in 1783.  The catastrophic Pierce presidency was followed by James Buchanan, arguably the most qualified man to ever be elected and regularly rated as the worst president in US history.  Buchanan was inaugurated on March 4, 1857.  On the 6th, the Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott decision.  With an ever-clearer widening divide between North and South, Buchanan twiddled his thumbs.  When secession finally came after Lincoln's election, Buchanan did almost nothing, leaving the war to his successor.

 

The disastrous 1850s led to armed conflict in the 1860s.  Had an Andrew Jackson-like figure been present rather than a slew of mediocrities, it is certainly arguable that things would have progressed very differently.  Had Fillmore, Pierce, or Buchanan been president during the Nullification Crisis, the Civil War might have started in 1833 instead of 1861.  Now, Jackson himself - a slave owner with a volcanic temper - might not have been the best choice to mediate the conflict but he would have been better than what we had.