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Analysis Of Abraham Lincoln 's Famous Words

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Abraham Lincoln 's famous words, “A House divided among itself cannot stand,” is a precise description of the twenty years prior to the Civil War, famously referred to as the Antebellum years. More accurately, it is true to say that a nation divided amongst itself cannot endure. The slavery topic in the 19th century was the central issue in the United States. The North and South constantly bickered in regard to the African Americans. In contrast, while the South wanted to expand slavery, the North wanted it abolished. Provided, the major conflicts caused a drastic division between the two, known as regionalism. Furthermore, as immigration spread in the United States, an antislavery group, the Nativists, rose to form a new political party.…show more content…
As some said: “The conditions of the slaves are better than black freemen”. The South was desperate for slaves since their entire economy relied on it. The plantations in the south grew immensely, and with the invention of the cotton gin much more cotton was being processed; therefore, the planters needed more slaves to help them with their quotas. After the Revolution, there was a small emancipation of slavery, but it was soon disrupted, for the South feared an effect on their cotton boom. Eventually, it was the Mexican War that initiated the greatest hostility toward slavery. Three months after the war began, David Wilmot, a Democratic representative from Pennsylvania, who later started the Republican Party in his state, made the Wilmot Proviso where he stated that all territories gained through the Mexican War are deemed free. In essence, Wilmot was a racist who was against slavery; yet, he repulsed the blacks calling them Negros. Therefore, he wanted the new lands to be slave-free so that blacks do not relocate. The slavery issues intensified as the North and South expanded westward, since both wanted the new territories to reflect their beliefs. Thus, Congress had to pass acts in order to settle disputes. One such act, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, banned slavery north of the Ohio River Valley. Another, the Missouri Compromise, altered the deal over the Louisiana territory and allowed parts of it to become
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