Inevitably of the Civil War

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In the years before the start of the Civil War, there were growing sectional differences between the North and the South including constitutional arguments about states’ rights and the federal Union; economic disputes, due to the industrialization in the North and agriculture in the South, over matters such as tariffs and internal improvements; and the biggest issue of slavery, which the South was in defense of. For example, following the Mexican War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was negotiated, giving the United States California and New Mexico. This was opposed by some northern Whigs who saw it as an opportunity to expand slavery. The Wilmot Proviso was proposed in 1846 to prohibit slavery in the newly acquired territory; however, it did not pass through the Senate, which increased the feelings of sectionalism. The Mexican War was opposed in its entirety, as the North saw it as a southern plan to expand slavery. Another political faux pas was the Ostend Manifesto, when President Franklin Pierce sent three diplomats to purchase Spain in secret. Northerners saw the expeditions in...

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