On April 12, 1861, shots rang at Fort Sumter as the Confederacy declared their independence and attacked the Yankees from the North. This action began the Civil War, and at the root of all of the factors that contributed to it was the institution of slavery. During the years of bitter sectional conflict that preceded the Civil War, Northern abolitionists, editors and Republican politicians repeatedly charged that the South was ruled by a ruthless "slave power." The expansion of the United States continually threatened to upset the balance of slave and free states in the Union. As territories applied to the Union as either free or slave states, Congressional members were hard-pressed to engineer compromises that would not tilt the balance of power. As time went on, these compromises became less and less acceptable to both regions of the United States. Anger broke out particularly with the passage of the...