Due to the recent comments from Donald Trump about the Civil War and Andrew Jackson, there has been a small rise in interest in Civil War history. Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort has a plaque on the premises for a battle that every historian has said never actually happened, but Trump believes it did because he said so. Add in that Jeff Sessions openly supported the Ku Klux Klan, as well as the purposeful division of Americans by Trump's administration, and the similarities are there for all to see. But really, would Andrew Jackson have been able to avoid the Civil War? Doubtful. Was the war about state's rights? Yes, but specifically the right to own slaves, under the guise of “economic liberty.” Trump has also described the Constitution as “archaic” and a danger to this country. Obviously he's never actually read it or learned more history than what is necessary – meaning anything pre-Trump. So why does Trump want to ignore all this and revise it all? He doesn't want the people to know the real “whys.”

The Constitution was made official in 1789, after years of internal struggle and concerns over whether or not the federal government was functioning enough to keep states united. As the official Constitution was being written, the discussion of slavery came up – with some arguing for abolition, others saying to leave it up to the states, leading to a stipulation being put in to prevent Congress from even coming up with regulation on slavery until twenty years had passed. After the writing of the Constitution, three men - Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote a series of essays titled The Federalist Papers to defend the contents of the document to the opposition. When all was said and done, the Constitution allowed for the first election, in which George Washington won, appointing Hamilton to the position of Secretary of the Treasury. However, Washington also appointed a major political rival of Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, to Secretary of the State. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and was serving as the ambassador to France during the Revolutionary War. Jefferson, hailing from Virginia, was a wealthy slave owner, compared to Hamilton, an immigrant who married into money and if he had slaves, they were treated more like servants (records are debatable and unverified). Washington, on the other hand, did have slaves, but his were inherited despite his personal hatred for the concept of slavery. He treated them as best as he legally could, and in his will, freed every single one from bondage. Hamilton and Jefferson often collided, arguing against each other during cabinet meetings, at times even making decisions for the other one's department. Washington did not run for a third term, and when John Adams was elected, he fired Hamilton, and Jefferson was placed as Vice-President.

Following John Adams' presidency, Jefferson was elected as the third President. In 1808, after the deaths of Washington and Hamilton (killed in a duel with Jefferson's Vice-President, Aaron Burr), Congress placed a ban on importing slaves – no more slaves could be brought into the country, but those already here are still considered property. Jefferson's party, the Democratic-Republicans, begins to fall apart during his and Madison's administrations. A compromise was made, wherein for every pro-slave state, there would be a free state, which led to Missouri and Maine being admitted to the Union in 1820. By the 1820s, the Democratic Party was founded by Andrew Jackson, who was elected to the presidency in 1829. He had served during the War of 1812, under the presidency of James Madison, and had hundreds of slaves, seeing them and all minorities as inferior. Jackson acted almost as a dictator, leading to the nickname “King Andrew” from his opponents. He ordered the removal of Cherokee tribes – by force if necessary, which became known as the Trail of Tears, where thousands died on the long walk to the government-approved land. Jackson believed in a strict reading of the Constitution, which never gave specific provisions for non-white residents/citizens. Jacksonian democracy became a political ideal of the following decades, lasting long after Jackson's death. In modern day, Jackson is on the twenty-dollar bill, and will be replaced by Harriet Tubman in 2020. It should be noted as well that both Andrew Jackson and Alexander Hamilton have a similar legacy, inspiring two modern Broadway musicals, both being in different musical genres – Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and Hamilton, being rock and rap respectively.

Fast forward to the early 1860s. During this time, Northern states prospered under industrial advancements, while the South continued to use agriculture as their main economic system. As more and more anti-slavery laws and abolition groups were being formed, southern political leaders attempted to push back, only to be voted down in Congress. In 1861, amidst more states becoming free, the Confederate States of America was formed and the member states seceding from the Union, all under the leadership of Jefferson Davis. Of course, this is just a condensed version of what happened to form this divide, as countless scholars have written volumes of information and theories on this. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, an early Republican, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in the Confederacy (under wartime laws of the era), but not those in “border states” as to keep some way of negotiating with Davis' Confederacy, though of course that is open to debate. It would have been up to Lincoln and Davis to meet diplomatically to prevent the war, not someone who died almost twenty years before it even happened. The KKK rose into power following the Civil War, hitting a peak in 1915 following the release of the film The Birth of a Nation – and many people in the Trump administration have either praised or admitted respect for the Klan. So why did the Civil War happen? Because of people like the current cabinet.

Lincoln may have been a Republican, and Jackson may have been a Democrat, but their parties have evolved and changed over time, practically switching platforms altogether. Likely, this is a result of post-World War II fears over possible communists, as evidenced by Republican Joseph McCarthy's trials of anyone who was claimed to support “communist” ideals, such as equality. During WWII, Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, had ideals similar to Bernie Sanders, such as a living wage and labor protections – perhaps the switch was there, and McCarthyism was the first step. Unlike Donald Trump, many Americans will look back on history and see what the situation is like now. Could we possibly end up in another Civil War? Well, if Trump had his way, then yes – it would take National Guard, if not full military action, to prevent an uprising following the very likely impeachment and removal from office (or resignation if he wants to pull a Nixon). He has already used his party to belittle and insult dissidence, and that's not even considering the cult-like following he's made for himself. The alt-right easily could become the next Confederacy, at the will of a Twitter post. Alt-right leaders often threaten to bring “an army” with them to fight protesters, so what's stopping them from actually forming a militia? That's just a worst-case scenario, but the way things are going, it wouldn't surprise anyone.

The Civil War happened for reasons that will long be debated. While slavery was a big part of it, historians still wonder if Lincoln had been able to make a deal with Davis – not Jackson preventing a war twenty years before it even started. Who knows what could have happened. Who knows what could happen now? Only time will tell. And much like the Civil War in the 1860s, maybe we'll be looking back on this period of time and asking the same questions – how could we have prevented it?