The Path to Civil War

Drawing his title from Lincoln’s 1858 “House Divided” speech, independent scholar Hyslop, author of several works on the American West, makes the case that in opening territories to slavery, westward expansion deepened sectional divisions over the institution of slavery. He examines the country’s journey from independence through western expansion, and on to the Civil War and emancipation.

Hyslop’s narrative concentrates on the roles various actors, notably Thomas Jefferson, William Clark, Andrew Jackson, Stephen Austin, John Tyler, James Polk, and Stephen Douglas, who by their actions furthered the cause of slavery, so that in building the “empire of liberty for some, [they] helped build a house divided more deeply in slavery.” (p. 30), leading to secession in 1861 and civil war.

Hyslop notes that there were contrarian voices, opposing the extension of slavery, including northerners such as John Quincy Adams, and even slave holding southerners such as Henry Clay and Thomas Hart Benton, who placed preserving the Union above expanding slavery.

Hyslop takes us through the various milestones in the pro- and anti-slavery debate, notably the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, which rather than resolve the issue only postponed it, while the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 led directly to the large scale violence in “Bleeding Kansas.” He makes a good case that the issue which motivated the new Republican Party was the Supreme Court’s 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, in which Chief Justice Roger Taney not only abolished pre-existing bans on slavery in the former Northwest Territories, but stated that Black Americans had no rights at all, and that slave owners had the right to take their “property” anywhere.

In short, Hyslop exploring how during the first eighty years of the Republic, various politicians and their adherents, arguing over expansion and slavery, whether “pro-” or “anti-” slavery, set the stage for civil war.

Building a House Divided is a thought-provoking work, carefully researched, well written, and well worth reading.

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Our Reviewer: David Marshall has been a high school American history teacher in the Miami-Dade School district for more than three decades. A life-long Civil War enthusiast, David is president of the Miami Civil War Round Table Book Club. In addition to numerous reviews in Civil War News and other publications, he has given presentations to Civil War Round Tables on Joshua Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the common soldier. His previous reviews here include, A Fine Opportunity Lost, The Iron Dice of Battle: Albert Sidney Johnston and the Civil War in the West, The Limits of the Lost Cause on Civil War Memory, War in the Western Theater, J.E.B. Stuart: The Soldier and The Man, The Inland Campaign for Vicksburg, All for the Union: The Saga of One Northern Family, Voices from Gettysburg, The Blood Tinted Waters of the Shenandoah: The 1864 Valley Campaign’s Battle of Cool Creek, June 17-18, 1864, Union General Daniel Butterfield, We Shall Conquer or Die, Dranesville, The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism, “Over a Wide, Hot . . . Crimson Plain", The Atlanta Campaign, Volume 1, Dalton to Cassville, Thunder in the Harbor, All Roads Led to Gettysburg, The Traitor's Homecoming, A Tempest of Iron and Lead, The Cassville Affairs, Holding Charleston by the Bridle, The Maps of Second Bull Run, Hell by the Acre, Chorus of the Union, Digging All Night and Fighting All Day, and The Confederate Resurgence of 1864

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Note: Building a House Divided is also available in e-editions.

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