Tempers raged and arguments started because of the Missouri Compromise. The simple act caused many fatal events because of what was changed within the United States. It may not seem like a big thing now, but before slavery had been abolished, the topic of slavery was an idea that could set off fights. The Missouri Compromise all started in late in 1819 when the Missouri Territory applied to the Union to become a slave state. The problem Congress had with accepting Missouri as a slave state was the new uneven count of free states and slave states. With proslavery states and antislavery states already getting into arguments, having a dominant number of either slave or free states would just ignite the flame even more. Many representatives from the north, such as James Tallmadge of New York, had already tried to pass another amendment that would abolish slavery everywhere. Along with other tries to eliminate slavery, his effort was soon shot down. The fact that people couldn’t agree on whether or not slavery should be legalized made trying to compose and pass a law nearly impossible.
The memory of massive death was still in the front of everyone’s mind, hardening into resentment and sometimes even hatred. The south was virtually non-existent politically or economically, and searching desperately for a way back in. Along with these things, now living amongst the population were almost four million former slaves, who had no idea how to make a living on their own. They had been freed by the 13th amendment in 1865, and in the future became a great concern to many political leaders. Still, it was no secret that something had to be done. So, as usually happens, political leaders appeared on the stage, each holding their own plan of Reconstruction, each certain their ideas were the correct ones. One of the first people who came up with a blueprint for Reconstruction was the president at the time, Abraham Lincoln. The “Lincoln Plan” was a very open one, stating that after certain criteria were met a confederate state could return to the union. To rejoin, a state had to have ten percent of voters both accept the emancipation of slaves and swear loyalty to the union. Also, those high ranking officers of the state could not hold office or carry out voting rights unless the president said
This can be connected to the Mexican American War because they both have create the divide between the two countries. In the Mexican American War, because of America’s belief in Manifest Destiny, the Americans believed that they had the right to conquer their land from sea to sea. This would divide the two countries because Mexico did not want to give up the land, but because of American’s drive to push onward, a war broke out. This is similar to the Civil War because the people were driven apart because the North believed that the slavery should be abolished, but the south thought
Before Abraham Lincoln became president, the South Carolina General Assembly was discussing a way to avoid being governed under the United States Legislature. The Declaration of Secession came into effect in South Carolina on December 24, 1860; ten months after Lincoln became president in November. A letter written by the General Assembly in 1859 in South Carolina reads as follows. “As the sense of this General Assembly that the election of a black Republican to the Presidency of the United States will be triumph and practical application of the principles subversive of the confederation of the United States and incompatible with the peace and safety of the southern states.” The General Assembly is saying that if Lincoln is to become president, the south will be put in danger economically. The south was aware that Lincoln was going to abolish slavery and South Carolina wanted to go ahead and secede to escape the freeing of their slaves and the destruction of their economy. Lin...
It is true that the CSA found slavery to be an incredibly important part of their national mission, as evidenced by Alexander Stephens and his speech outlining black slavery as the “cornerstone” of the Confederate government (Stephens). But it was not the reason for secession, nor the sole difference between the Union and Confederacy. The long history of conflict in the Union resulted in what many saw as an unavoidable ending, but what was really a conclusion stemming from a line of precise and certain events which aggravated the relationship between the two parts of the country. The crux of this conflict—the disagreement over slavery—would prove to be the catalyst for the chain of political and social events leading up to the war, but not as the reason for secession.
Tensions between the North and South had grown steadily since the anti slavery movement in 1830. Several compromises between the North and South regarding slavery had been passed such as the Nebraska-Kansas and the Missouri act; but this did little to relieve the strain. The election of President Lincoln in 1861 proved to be the boiling point for the South, and secession followed. This eventually sparked the civil war; which was viewed differently by the North and the South. The Northern goal was to keep the Union intact while the Southern goal was to separate from the Union. Southern leaders gave convincing arguments to justify secession. Exploring documents from South Carolina’s secession ordinance and a speech from the Georgia assembly speech will explain how the Southern leaders justify the secession from the United States.
Contrary to what today’s society believes about Lincoln, he was not a popular man with the South at this period in time. The South wanted to expand towards the West but Lincoln created a geographical containment rule keeping slavery in the states it currently resided in. Despite his trying to rationalize with the South, Lincoln actually believed something different ”Lincoln claimed that he, like the Founding Fathers, saw slavery in the Old South as regrettable reality whose expansion could and should be arrested, thereby putting it on the long and gradual road ”ultimate extinction” (216). He believed it to be “evil” thus “implying that free southerners were evil for defending it”(275). Lincoln wanted to wipe out slavery for good and the South could sense his secret motives. By trying to trick them, the South rebelled as soon as Lincoln became president and launched what is today known as the Civil war.
The Compromise of 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Acts were very advantageous to the South. In both pieces of legislation the south gained things that would aid them in their campaign to expand slavery. The advantages the south included a stronger fugitive slave law, the possibility for slavery to exist in the remaining part of the Mexican Cession, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the eventual plan to build the Southern Pacific Railroad.
The new territories and the discussion of whether they would be admitted to the Union free or slave-holding stirred up animosity. The Compromise of 1850 which offered stricter fugitive slave laws, admitted California as a free state, allowed slavery in Washington D.C., and allowed new territories to choose whether they wanted to be slave-holding or free was supposed to help ease tension between the North and South. Yet Southern states wanted more new territories to be slave-holders so the institution of it would continue to grow. They believed slavery was a way of life and as Larrabee said in his senate speech, “You cannot break apart this organization and this system that has intertwined itself into every social and political fiber of that great people who inhabit one-half of the Union.” (“There is a Conflict of Races”).
Compromise was not an option for the institution of slavery. “How many times have we had danger from this question? Go back to the day of the Missouri Compromise. Go back to the Nullification question, at the bottom of which lay this same slavery question. Go back to the time of the Annexation of Texas. Go back to the troubles that led to the Compromise of 1850. You will find that every time, with the exception of the Nullification question, they sprung from an endeavor to spread this institution,” (Stampp,
Lasting from 1861 to 1865, the Civil War is considered the bloodiest war in American history. However, the Civil War had seemingly been a long time coming. There were many events that took place within the fifteen years leading up to the Civil War that foreshadowed the eventual secession of seven “cotton states” from the Union. The end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859, and the outcome of the Presidential Election of 1860 all helped contribute to southern secession and the start of the Civil War; they each caused conditions that either strengthened the abolitionist cause, strengthened the pro-slavery cause, or strengthened both causes respectively; although the conditions made many Southerners want to leave the United States, the Northerners were adamant on going to war to preserve the Union.
Southern states seceded from the union because they thought Abraham Lincoln and Northerners were going to abolish slavery. Abraham Lincoln was a politician who ran for president in 1860. Lincoln wanted peace between the North and South. Lincoln also stated in his inaugural address that he would not attack his dissatisfied countrymen. Even though peace was offered, Southern states threatened to secede from the Union if Abraham Lincoln became president. Southerners thought Lincoln was an abolitionist trying to destroy the South’s way of life. Abraham Lincoln never stated he wanted to end slavery, but stated slavery would eventually die off. Slaves were workers who did labor in the South. Slaves were treated very poorly as shown in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Northerners believed slavery was wrong, which made them want to end slavery. However, if the South did not have slaves, they would have trouble producing
During the time period between 1820- 1860 slavery was a very debated topic. Should slavery be allowed? Most Northerners wanted slavery to be stopped But most southerners wanted slavery to be kept. The United States was unable to find a compromise on the issue of slavery in 1820 to 1860 because of how the north wanted to abolish slavery while the South wanted slavery they could not find an equal balance between no slavery and slavery.
The Beginnings of the Sectional Crisis During the antebellum period, the North and the South were complete opposites. This led to each side viewing itself as superior and viewing the other as "backward." Each side believed itself to be superior, in all aspects, to the other. The reasons for these opinions can be found in the different economic, social, and cultural systems found in these two regions. The Southern economy was primarily agricultural.
The Mississippi Secession Convention consisted of delegates that the majority of them were pro-secession and also pro- slavery. The idea of secession came about because Mississippians feared that Abraham Lincoln was going to abolish slavery. The delegates in the convention held similar political and religious views. The fate of Mississippi leaving the Union was in the hands of the delegates that were chosen. The Mississippi Convention delegates were in distraught on their slavery institute being abolished by the upcoming presidential election because they felt they had rights to hold and protect slaves due to their wealth and hierarchy in the position of jobs.