--- title: Donald Trump: Andrew Jackson Civil War Question Answered description: In an interview, President Trump asked why the Civil War happened. His predecessor, Abraham Lincoln, explained it more than 150 years ago. canonical: https://time.com/4761335/trump-jackson-lincoln-civil-war/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-01T16:25:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:21.312Z article:section: History og:title: Abraham Lincoln Answered President Trump's Question About the Civil War in 1865 og:description: "People don't ask that question, but why was there the Civil War?" og:url: https://time.com/4761335/trump-jackson-lincoln-civil-war/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc04e17b856676f00/6988cb5f0a4a223f9f9cdf7a/donald-trump-abe-lincoln2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1756 og:image:height: 988 og:image:alt: donald-trump-abe-lincoln2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Abraham Lincoln Answered President Trump's Question About the Civil War in 1865 twitter:description: "People don't ask that question, but why was there the Civil War?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc04e17b856676f00/6988cb5f0a4a223f9f9cdf7a/donald-trump-abe-lincoln2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump's Question About the Civil War Was Answered by Abraham Lincoln in 1865 > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: President Trump Praised Both Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. They Hated Each Other [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Praised Both Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. They Hated Each Other](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fRFqJO3l.m3u8) (2:43)  _Published 2017-03-21. At a rally in Louisville on Monday, President Donald Trump sang the praises of "the great 19th century statesman" Henry Clay, the former Speaker of the House, U.S. Senator and Whig Party co-founder._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 1, 2017 4:25 PM UTC  President Trump (left) and President Lincoln (right) President Trump (left) and President Lincoln (right) Getty Images  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 1, 2017 4:25 PM UTC In an [interview](https://politicalwire.com/2017/05/01/exchange-of-the-day-48/) with Salena Zito for the [Washington _Examiner_](http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-you-make-a-mistake-here-there-is-nothing-to-work-out/article/2621572) that [aired](https://twitter.com/SXMPolitics/status/858999704167751680) on Sirius XM on Monday afternoon, President Trump expressed his[ continued admiration](http://time.com/4591408/time-poy-donald-trump-andrew-jackson-jon-meacham/) for President Andrew Jackson with a remark that struck many as [surprising](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/01/trumps-totally-bizarre-claim-about-avoiding-the-civil-war/?tid=sm%5Ftw&utm%5Fterm=.523ba973d770), to say the least. “I mean, had Andrew Jackson been a little later you wouldn’t have had the Civil War. He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War, he said, ‘There’s no reason for this,'” Trump said. “People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why? People don’t ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?” On the one hand, though Andrew Jackson died in 1845 — nearly two decades before the Civil War [began](http://time.com/4281331/fort-sumter-photos/) — Trump’s belief that Jackson would have prevented the war from happening, while impossible to prove, does have some connection to the real events that happened during Jackson’s presidency. Specifically, Jackson was President during the [nullification crisis](https://www.britannica.com/topic/nullification-crisis) between South Carolina and the federal government over the question of tariffs. During that episode, South Carolina asserted the state’s right to void federal law, a preview of the Confederate view that those states could withdraw from the Union. Jackson responded in 1832 with a [proclamation](https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=011/llsl011.db&recNum=816) that explained his view that for South Carolina to take up arms to back up that position would be treasonous, and Congress [authorized](https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=004/llsl004.db&recNum=679) him to use the military to enforce the tariff in question. As Jackson [put it,](https://books.google.com/books?id=unCsDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA40&dq=%E2%80%9COur+Federal+Union%E2%80%94It+must+be+preserved.%E2%80%9D+andrew+jackson&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8r6XogM%5FTAhVG4iYKHb7FBqUQ6AEILjAC#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9COur%20Federal%20Union%E2%80%94It%20must%20be%20preserved.%E2%80%9D%20andrew%20jackson&f=false) “Our Federal Union—it must be preserved.” The federal government also, however, compromised on the tax to which South Carolina had objected. South Carolina backed off and no use of force proved necessary. Jackson, then, did express his anger over this particular matter that would come to a head in the Civil War, as Trump put it, and his [complicated legacy](http://time.com/4649081/andrew-jackson-donald-trump-portrait/) does include getting credit for heading off an earlier armed conflict. But the question of “why was there the Civil War” is one that people have in fact been thinking about for more than 150 years. While a nullification dispute over taxes could be solved without war by the president and Congress, the dispute over slavery could not. And yes, even Andrew Jackson, in the 1830s, [could see that coming.](http://www.civilwarcauses.org/jackson.htm) It wasn’t “worked out,” as Trump put it, because the South was too invested in the continued existence of slavery to let it be. The difference between those two situations was explained by none other than Abraham Lincoln himself, in 1865, when he delivered his [second inaugural ](http://time.com/4628822/every-inauguration-ever/)address as the war continued to rage. He dedicated his extremely brief address to exactly that question. Here’s the portion of [that speech](http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th%5Fcentury/lincoln2.asp) that contains his answer, with emphasis added: --- > “” --- Though Lincoln had a personal stake in this analysis and many people have disagreed about it over the years, historians today generally agree that he was right from the beginning:[ the short answer](http://time.com/vault/issue/2011-04-18/spread/44/) is that slavery (of which Jackson was a [defender](http://time.com/money/4303239/harriet-tubman-andrew-jackson-weird-that-they-are-together/)) was why there was the Civil War. ## Transcript [ APPLAUSE ] And the great 19th Century American Statesman, Henry Clay represented Kentucky in the United States Congress. [ APPLAUSE ] Henry Clay believed in what he called the American [ UNKNOWN ] And proposed tariffs to protect American industry and finance American infrastructure. Like can we claim we want our own people to work. We believe in two simple rules. By American and hire American. [ APPLAUSE ] So, as you folks all know, Henry Clay was a legendary Kentucky politician who became the eighth speaker of the House in 1811. You know, they compared my campaign, to Jackson, president Jackson right. Of 1828, I said can you imagine having to go back that far, and they said this was even more severe But we did a good job. Didn't we do a great job together? [ APPLAUSE ] 1828 that's a long time ago. Boy and he was a good president right? He was a good president. Clay was a fierce advocate for American manufacturing. He wanted it badly. He said, very strongly, free trade, which would throw wide open our ports to foreign production without duties. While theirs remain closed to us. That was his quote. He knew all the way back. Early 1800s. Clay said that trade must be fair, equal and reciprocal. Boom. He said fair, equal, and reciprocal. I'm talking about reciprocal trade. [ APPLAUSE ] Reciprocal. In explaining his American system, Clay argued that the sole object of the tariff is to tax the produce. And remember, To tax the produce of foreign industry with the view of promoting American industry. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4761335/trump-jackson-lincoln-civil-war/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4761335/trump-jackson-lincoln-civil-war/"},"headline":"President Trump's Question About the Civil War Was Answered by Abraham Lincoln in 1865","datePublished":"2017-05-01T16:25:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:54:21.312Z","description":"The President asked why the Civil War happened. 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