Civil War - The Civil War 150 years later

With the inauguration of President Lincoln, who has vowed to halt the expansion of slavery westward, while maintaining the Union in some way, the tension increases - powered by abolitionist movement, with the hassle of slavery in western territories, and the second Great Awakening (religious rebirth). After Fort Sumter, the pressure overwhelmed by the large national convulsions: understaffed, insufficiently implemented the southern branch of the field, and Lincoln, is supported by a direct attack against the federal troops, gathered their forces to stop.

Although South Carolina politicians vowed that no more than a thimble of blood would be shed at Fort Sumter - the exact description, in fact, no one was injured in the shootout - the war dragged on for four years almost to the day. He left more than 620,000 Americans have died, the South in tatters and the nation in a renaissance.

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Charlestonians as modern - some dressed in costumes of the Civil War, most in street clothes - still celebrated on Tuesday with music since before the dawn and the firing of guns white, the country remains fragile peace in 150 years time. Some Americans say the war is underway. California Governor Jerry Brown (D) said Monday the nation faces "turnaround plan" and "point of civil strife" on a scale never seen before the Civil War.

But even leaving aside the political hyperbole, the Civil War is still very well-informed American experience. Liberation of black people are not fully resolved, and the differences between Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln gave their shadows on issues such as health care reform and human rights. In addition, the tea party, the size of government assistance, the task of post-civil war government, as chief, a benevolent force for good.

After the Civil War, the ancient tradition of Jefferson, was repealed a new vision of the Nationalist regime Lincolnian block, and he was never able to digest the tradition of Jefferson, "says Donald Livingston, professor of philosophy at Emory University in Atlanta. "But it's still there, to delete from the memory of Americans Interestingly south, he took a more traditional Jeffersonian -.. That's why you can not understand America today without seeing a deep conflict between the two groups'

Indeed, 56 percent of Americans, according to new research Pew Research Center, believes that civil war is still relevant. This is partly because of its great themes, but also because it remains a very personal conflict for many Americans, one of 17 Americans - 18 million - can claim a direct relationship with those who fought in the war. "It really was not that long," said Michael Hill, president of the Southern League, a nationalist group in South Killen, Alabama

"Shake the Civil War happened so deeply for the entire national character that the influence is not measured in the short two or three generations," Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner wrote in 1873, almost ten years after the end of the war. There were five generations - Robert E. Lee 's V is now a football coach in school - and the key events of the times even American.

Although the 50-year anniversary was marked by the surviving veterans of both sides of the covers of Gettysburg, and the 100 th anniversary celebrated military significance of the war, dedicated to the 150 has a darker, political orientation.civil war