Sectionalism (1840-1861)

Southern territorial tensions linked to slavery in the mid 1800's. (Doc D) Opposition to annexation of Texas occurred because of avoidance to the problem of Texas being a free or slave state. The Wilmot Proviso provoked huge controversy about the status of the land gained after the Mexican War, the bill would be called upon and debated on furiously for decades to come. Popular sovereignty began to appear in some alternate plans for deciding slavery in the Louisiana Territory. Polk's plan, which proposed to extend the slavery line in the Missouri Compromise to the pacific, aroused further debates for the North and the South. California and New Mexico raised even more questions about the implementation of

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was created and proposed by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, who greatly supported the railroad system. Douglas was excited to have a railroad system that reached from his home city, Chicago, all the way to California. However, the

The compromises merely worked, and with the passing of time, tensions rose more between the sections, thus making these compromises less and less effective. The Compromise of 1850 enraged both the North and the South. When California was annexed, it was assigned to become a free state and the South did not appeal to that because the land boundaries that was made by the Missouri Compromise was large. Another part of this compromise that angered Southerners was that slave trade was banned in Washington D.C. The Fugitive Slave Law, which was a part of the Compromise of 1850 angered the North, because it allowed bounty hunters to hunt down slaves and the people who helped them to hide. Also, Northerners rejected this because they rejected Popular Sovereignty, which created possibilities of having slavery in any Northern states.

In 1850, the Compromise was formed as a way of preventing the southerners from withdrawing from the Union. Part of this law, was the Fugitive Slave act, which aroused many reactions from the public that it ultimately led to the civil war. This Fugitive Slave Act stated that the southerners were still owners of these slaves that had escaped to the north and that the Northerners had to abide to it, even though most of their states had illegalized slavery. This law also made it hard for the blacks to have a fair trial as they were not able to prove whether they were free or not. This led to the blacks in the northern states freeing to Canada in fear of being returned to slavery and because they did not feel as safe anymore. The Compromise, to keep the southerners in the Union, made these laws on slaves to favor them. However unexpectedly it made the Abolitionists

Douglas was stubborn. Ignoring the anger of his own party, he got President Pierce's approval and pushed his bill through both houses of Congress. The bill became law on May 30, 1854.

Webster believed the issue of slavery was settled long ago, when the regions were divided into slave and free states, and he also believed an agreement could be reached between the pro-slavery positions in the south and anti-slavery position in the north. Comparatively, Calhoun and Webster both saw the union was in danger of falling apart, they also both believed the issues of slavery between the north and the south was the major cause. Where they disagreed was on the future state of slavery. Calhoun saw the compromise as a betrayal of the south; he sought to have the northerners agree to the protection of slavery in the south so the south would remain in the union. Calhoun knew slavery pre-existed and believed it must continue to exist. Webster was more of a pacifist, he pleaded with the northerners to accept demands of the south in order to save the union, even though he did not accept the fact slavery needed to continue. Webster deeply believed that preservation of the union was more important than any other issue. In addition, William Henry Seward also opposed the proposed compromise. Seward was a New York politician and secretary of state and was one of the major political figures of the mid-nineteenth century; he became one of the most outspoken anti-slavery politicians of the period. Seward condemned Clay's resolutions on the

The United States during the 1800s became primarily divided into two sections classified as North and South. In the early years of the 19th century, the market revolution advanced technology and industrialization in America, but impacted the north drastically while the south continued to promote agricultural society. The debate over slavery then became the leading cause to the sectionalism formed in America because most Northerners were opposed to the idea of slavery while many southerners used slaves to maintain economic stability. Sectionalism in the United States was a fundamental cause of the Civil War because of disputes over territorial expansion and increases in physical violence.

Although it bought the North 10 more years to industrialize before the Civil War, the Compromise of 1850 overall did not work very well causing widespread unrest over its effects. California being admitted as a free state and D.C. stopping its slave trade worried the South for the fate of slavery. Popular sovereignty really only put gas into the fire that was the dispute

That is until the troubles of the Kansas-Nebraska Act occurred. Stephen Douglas was a Chicago native, and he believed that a transcontinental railroad that travelled through Chicago would be extremely to the Market Revolution in the city. This was a great idea, but it presented problems about whether the new territory established by the railroad would be a

Henry Clay, a senator from Kentucky, introduced this as a clustered bill, which was turned down after his death. Then Senator Stephen A. Douglas decided to split the cluster into five individual bills that way each one would have a deciding vote, navigated it through Congress (Rodriguez). Therefore California became part of the United States as a result of the Mexican-American War. Many people started to flood into California from all over the world due to the news of the Gold Rush. However, James K. Polk tried to have Congress establish some territory in California, as the debates increased, it

The ideas of nationalism and sectionalism in the early 1800s played a large role in the presidential elections leading up to the Civil War. Nationalism is when the population of a nation has love for their country put their country first. Sectionalism is when the population identifies more with the ideals of their region more than they identify with the nation as a whole. Please two ideas would become the basis of the Missouri compromise, the Monroe doctrine, and this establishment of new political parties in the United States during the early 1800s.

A leading example of the struggles of slavery in the western states was the struggle over slavery in Kansas. Document F depicts a political cartoon basically stating that Stephen Douglas, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan all attempted intentionally or unintentionally to spread slavery to the West. Stephen Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in which the Midwest Nebraska territory would be divided into two states Kansas and Nebraska and the issue of slavery would be determined by in state vote known as "popular sovereignty". Franklin Pierce aided with the signing of the bill. The results upon this bill was harsh fighting between pro-slavery supporters and non-slavery supporters in Kansas over this issue. It also led to the non-reelection of Pierce and the end to the Whig party, along with the introduction of the sectional Republican party, who opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. An attempt at forcing slavery into

“I know no South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe any allegiance, The Union, sir, is my country” - Henry Clay (United States History). The Compromise of 1850 was once considered despising, loathing, and abhorring. This would become altered, as it would turn out to be one of the greatest compromises in the United States and would make its mark in history. The Compromise of 1850 adopted the Fugitive Slave Act and the reason for California statehood. The compromise attempted to avoid a crisis between the North and the South, with the assistance of Henry Clay and his colleagues. The document came to be with three main ideas: significance, conflict, and compromise. The Compromise of 1850, proposed by Henry Clay, dealt with disputes

During the time around 1850, tensions were rising on the issue of slavery between the North and the South. New states were being admitted to the United States, but the decisions to make them a free state or a slave state were what really mattered. As an example, California was admitted to the Union as a free state, and this angered the south very much because slavery was a very important factor to the South's economy. The Compromise of 1850 was developed to help soothe the tensions on each side. This Compromise had several provisions: California was admitted to the Union as a free state; the territories of New Mexico and Utah were created without restrictions of slavery; the slave trade was abolished in Washington, D.C.; Congress passed a stricter fugitive slave law. This compromise showed just how important slavery was to each side, and it gives us a good idea of why it could be important as one of their goals during the Civil War. With slavery in mind, it brought about ideas of succession to the South. Because the South was scared of Lincoln abolishing slavery, they thought it would be a wise decision to secede from the Union. In fact, Lincoln had no plans of abolishing slavery, but stated that it should not spread to the territories. The South basically misunderstood and decided to secede anyway. The reason slavery was so important to the South, and lead them to break apart from the Union was that it

In efforts to better understand the Civil War most historians examine the Sectional Crisis and the Compromise of 1850 in the decades leading up to the worst years in American History. Some historians prefer to focus on the underlying theme of the war, others tightly examine individual leaders, events, and political parties, connecting them all together like puzzle pieces to define the years prior to the war. Despite the contrasting views, it is clear to realize the constant prevailing issues of the Antebellum Period, the Sectional Crisis and the Compromise of 1850. In particular, the Compromise of 1850 is deceivingly taught as only establishing 3 pivotal elements: the status of slavery in future territories (popular sovereignty), California statehood, and the fugitive slave law. Granted these elements of the compromise provide a great amount of controversy long after their birth, but one element of the compromise perceives to fail in obtaining recognition. The Texas-New Mexico boundary resolution seems to find itself fading away from its relevancy to the civil war, shadowed by more prominent issues regarding the stability of the Union. Abandoning the traditional teaching of the compromise, the Texas-New Mexico border decision figuratively and literally changed the identity of Texas. This was the long awaited result caused by deep rooted social and political issues dating back to the Texas Revolution.