Ever since the Civil War a controversy has existed among the authorities of American history regarding the inevitability of Civil War. On the one hand, there are writers like Beard who had that the two sections (North and South) had irreconcilable interests, which could not have been settled but though the war.
On the other hand, there are certain scholars like Percy Greg and Burgess who have expressed doubts about the inevitability of the war. Channing also considered civil war as a needless war. Likewise Ramsdell points out that the institution of slavery would have disappeared in a generation or so even without the frightful cost of a war.
Let us examine these two views in some details to understand the problem.