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Secession Of The United States

Decent Essays

Eleven states in the south came to the conclusion that secession was the best way to escape the oppressive government. All of these southern states were justified as they felt that they were not being properly represented in the government and were seen as a joke. They were not taken seriously and they felt that since their votes didn’t matter anyway that their place in the union also didn’t matter. A large reason for the south’s secession revolves around the idea of slavery. All the south wanted was for slavery to spread and be legal across the north and once they discovered that this opening was closing they began the thoughts of secession. These thoughts of the south seceding from the union worried the government so they did what they could to make the south happy without allowing slavery to actually expand. This came in the form of many events including the Missiouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law, and Washington D.C. remaining a slave territory. This kept the south at bay for a while until the events of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the election of 1860 opened their eyes to see that in reality their votes didn’t matter. This ultimately led to their justified secession from the union. In 1820 president James Monroe passed the Missouri Compromise stating that slavery was illegal in any state north of the parallel 36°30’ north with the exception of Missouri. This left the states south of this line free to continue practicing slavery. In order to

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