From the Beginning.....
Since the beginning of the United States, America had been boiling with
sectional issues; from moving the nation's capital from the North (New
York) to the South (Washington D.C.) in return for the South to help the
North pay off their portion of the war debt left from the Revolutionary
War.
These sectional differences had always been centered around politics, society, geography and greatly economics.These differences were threaded by the coarse thread of slavery.
For decades these issues had been kept at bay by compromises (Great Compromise, 3/5 Compromise, Missouri Compromise of 1820). But with the national victory during the Mexican-American War, America acquired much of the southwestern land in North America. This new land would bring back to the fore front those sectional issues that had been brewing for decades. The question of political balance between slave and free states came up. No region wanted the other region to have the upper hand in Congress.
Abolitionists, people that fought to end slavery, and Free-Soilers of the North did not want slavery to expand west or they wanted to get rid of the practice all together. Abolitionists believed that it was immoral to own another human being and Free-Soilers were against slavery expanding because of the free labor of slaves led to unemployment of white males.Southerners felt that Northern politicians were trying to disturb their southern way of life. Southerns wanted slavery to expand west so that they could continue to excel economically and politically.
By the presidential election of 1860 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, the boiling water of civil war was getting ready to overflow. There would be no compromise to save the Union at that point. It would be a war that would put an end to the sectional issues that had been plaguing America since 1787.
Next: Northern/Southern: A Question of Economy
These sectional differences had always been centered around politics, society, geography and greatly economics.These differences were threaded by the coarse thread of slavery.
For decades these issues had been kept at bay by compromises (Great Compromise, 3/5 Compromise, Missouri Compromise of 1820). But with the national victory during the Mexican-American War, America acquired much of the southwestern land in North America. This new land would bring back to the fore front those sectional issues that had been brewing for decades. The question of political balance between slave and free states came up. No region wanted the other region to have the upper hand in Congress.
Abolitionists, people that fought to end slavery, and Free-Soilers of the North did not want slavery to expand west or they wanted to get rid of the practice all together. Abolitionists believed that it was immoral to own another human being and Free-Soilers were against slavery expanding because of the free labor of slaves led to unemployment of white males.Southerners felt that Northern politicians were trying to disturb their southern way of life. Southerns wanted slavery to expand west so that they could continue to excel economically and politically.
By the presidential election of 1860 between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, the boiling water of civil war was getting ready to overflow. There would be no compromise to save the Union at that point. It would be a war that would put an end to the sectional issues that had been plaguing America since 1787.
Next: Northern/Southern: A Question of Economy