Causes of the Civil War: The Northwest Ordinance (1787) and the U.S. Constitution
© Michael J. Swogger
In the introduction I stated that slavery was not necessarily the direct cause of the Civil War, nor was the War fought to end or preserve that institution. The question of slavery can be found, however, as a basis of many other issues that arose prior to the War. Thus, to ignore slavery and how the issue was addressed in the late 1700's would be unjust when the time comes to examine the controversial issues and events that occurred during the mid 1800's.
Following the American victory over the British in the American Revolution, the issue of slavery and the question of whether it was an economic necessity and ethical institution surfaced in full force in the colonies, particularly in the North. Before the end of the War in 1780, Pennsylvania made provisions for the gradual abolition of slavery, and many states were soon to follow suit. Between the years 1783 and 1786 most northern states took steps to manumit all slaves in their respective states. Even some southern states looked for indirect ways to encourage slave owners to free their servants. In 1787, Congress passed the Northwest Land Ordinance that included a provision that outlawed slavery in the new territories located in present-day Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. This was the first official act of Congress that brought the issue of slavery to the national political scene.
The founding fathers had to deal with slavery when writing the Constitution. If you look carefully into this great but fallible document, the word "slave" never appears. However, the issue was dealt with on three separate areas of concern: representation, international slave trade and fugitive slaves. To address the representation dilemma, the writers included a 3/5 clause in which slaves, or "all other persons" are included. Thus slaves were not thought to be a whole person, just 3/5 of one. Secondly, the founders banned the "migration or importation of such persons," an act that would take effect on January 1, 1808. Finally, all runaway slaves were declared property "of the party to whom such service or labour may be due," and that any slave that escaped to a free territory or state was bound to return to his or her owner.
So as you can see, the founding fathers of the United States addressed the issue of slavery as politely as possible. With the signing of the U.S. Constitution, slavery was a state-supported and sanctioned institution, and because of this fact the Civil War was almost made inevitable by the founders in 1787.
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