In the beginning of the 1860s, there were constitutional developments that arose to a radical extent because it suffices the beliefs of American citizens with the issue over slavery. For instance, Abraham Lincoln taking hold of the presidency was an impacting ...
The jostling interests that presented themselves between the political parties on the debate over slavery during the Antebellum Period (approximately between 1820-1860), led to “A Nation Divided” and ultimately to the Civil War in the United States.
The increasingly diverging economies of the North and South resulted in the development of different political and social ideologies. The South’s agrarian economy resulted in wealthy plantation owners investing their money into slaves, leading to weak institutions and little innovation. While New England’s economy benefited from factories and business ventures. New Englanders invested in transportation and internal improvements. Divisions surrounding taxes, tariffs, internal improvements and states rights versus federal rights was most prominent during the 1850’s. This period was most renown for it’s political compromises and violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery figures. Growing sectionalism
The Illinois Senate race of 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas had famous Lincoln- Douglas debates that helped elevate Lincoln to a higher star status within the Republican party which greatly influenced his popularity for the 1860 presidential elections. Douglas’ Freeport Doctrine decreased Douglas’ influence and popularity in the South, making the election of 1860 largely sectional which the more populated, more Republican North won. The underlying discussion over slavery ─ i.e. Dred Scott decision, Freeport Doctrine, etc. ─ brought up the ideological debate of the position and place of blacks, thus the ideological battle of race in America that was fought and largely dominated by the South for almost a century. Without the crisis of the 1850’s and what was the central debate at the time. Neither the Civil War, fourteenth through fifteenth amendment, nor the ideological battle over rave would have happened when they did.
The presidential elections of 1860 was one of the nation’s most memorable one. The north and the south sections of country had a completely different vision of how they envision their home land. What made this worst was that their view was completely opposite of each other. The north, mostly republican supporters, want America to be free; free of slaves and free from bondages. While on the other hand, the south supporters, mostly democratic states, wanted slavery in the country, because this is what they earned their daily living and profit from.
Another advantage of the Compromise of 1850 to the south was that the rest of the Mexican Cession territory was to be divided into the two territories of Utah, and New Mexico. It was also said that when these territories eventually applied for statehood, the people of the new states would decide for themselves if they were to be free states or slave states. This was good for the south because it made it possible for the new territory to eventually become slave states, and that would not be possible if the 36-30 line was extended westward. The compromise also said nothing prohibiting people from bringing their slaves to the territory in the meantime.
Throughout the United States turbulent history there has not been a worse conflict than the civil war. The issues that drove the country apart go back as far as the birth of the nation itself. During the years immediately prior to the outbreak of war numerous events set off a domino effect that eventually lead to the cessation of what was to become the Confederacy. Some of the most noteworthy events include the Compromise of 1850, The Fugitive Slave Act, Bleeding Kansas, and Brooks-Sumner affair.
In regards to California’s statehood, Mexico and the United States signed a treaty in February 1850 that not only ended the Mexican War, but yielded a vast portion of the Southwest to the United States; present day California was a part of this vast portion of land. Several days earlier, in January 25, 1848, gold had been discovered on the American River. As a result of the Gold Rush, California experienced an influx of settlers; the more the population of California increased, the more it became evident that a civil government was needed. Therefore, in 1849, Californians sought statehood, requesting admission into the Union as a free state. California’s admission into the Union fueled the tension in the national government. Conflict had already accumulated because the Anti-slavery faction of the North that promoted the Wilmot Proviso wanted to prohibit slavery in the lands acquired from Mexico; the Pro-slavery faction in the South vehemently argued against the prohibition of slavery in the new territories; advocates of Popular Sovereignty contended that the New Mexico and Utah territories had the right to decide whether or not slavery should be allowed; anti-slavery groups wanted the slave trade outlawed in the District of Columbia; and the Southern states complained that the Northern states were not enforcing the Fugitive Act of 1793. In hopes to appease this tension, Henry Clay presented a compromise in January 29, 1850, which, after eight months of heated debate in the U.S. Congress, became the Compromise of 1850 in September
The Compromise of 1850 was an attempt to make everyone happy, which much to Henry Clay's dismay, would eventually backfire. The Compromise of 1850 wanted to please both the north and south so they decided to make California a free state and abolish slave trade in Washington DC (for the north). The north loved this idea in the beginning, they loved the
Slavery was a defining factor in aiding America to become an economic powerhouse by allowing affluent plantation owners to have a source of free labor, but opposition to slavery rose in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. Although there were antislavery movements prior to the Revolution, the movements affected slavery in the North but made little impact in the South. It was not until 1830 that the acts against slavery had become influential enough to change America’s acceptance to slavery. The abolitionist movement of 1830 had a greater impact on the nation as a whole than the antislavery movement before 1830 because it brought a revival to the topic of antislavery that seemed to be at a dead end. The abolitionist movement of 1830 was facilitated by William Lloyd Garrison and his transformation of abolition, the free black abolitionists such as Fredrick Douglass, and the emergence of abolitionist politics.
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.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as president of the United States of America, the repercussions of which led to civil war. However it was not only Lincoln’s election that led to civil war but also the slavery debate between the northern and southern states and the state of the economy in the United States. Together with the election of Lincoln these caused a split, both politically and ideologically, between the North and South states which manifested into what is now refereed to as the American Civil War.
The compromise of 1850, written by Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, had a large impact on slave owners and abolitionists alike. Now New Mexico, Utah, and any other new west land could decide for themselves whether they were free or slave according to popular sovereignty. Popular sovereignty is when people in their own state and the states government decide for themselves whether they are a free or slave state (Hickman, Kennedy). Also, because of this compromise residents in the District of Columbia could no longer trade slaves ("Civil War Events Leading to War Timeline"), Texas’ debts were canceled and some Texan land was given to New Mexico. There was another part to this compromise that was more pleasing to the pro-slavery citizens called the Fugitive Slave Act.
This was “a complex compromise mediated by Senator Henry Clay that headed off southern secession over California statehood; to appease the south it included a stronger fugitive slave law and delayed determination of the slave status of the New Mexico and Utah territories” (Tindall, A10) The divisions of slave territory was resolved in the compromise of 1850. This compromise did many things such as declaring California as free, would determine if Mexico would be slavery free by the citizens who reside there, ending the slave trade Washington but not slavery and passing a fugitive slave act for southerners to find runaway
From 1860 to 1865, the United States faced one of the most divisive events in its history, known as the American Civil War. The war pitted families, neighbors, and friends against one another, resulted in high rates of casualties, and ended slavery in America once and for all. Much debate about the war and precisely what it meant for America has occurred since the time. President Abraham Lincoln once referred to the Civil War as a “new birth of freedom” in the United States, however the war more closely resembled the last fight of the American Revolution.