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Differences Between North And South

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Ever since the colonial days the North and South had very different ideas in the way they viewed slavery.

As the idea of Manifest Destiny spread the country westward and new states joined the union, the disagreement over slavery became more and more heated. With each new state, came new congressman, new lawmakers. Northern states, free states, wanted the new states to have no slavery. The Southern states, pro-slavery states, wanted to extend slavery into the new states.

JUMP FORWARD 1858: The race for Illinois Senate - the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
In 1858, an Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln and the current Illinois senator named Stephan Douglas engaged in a series of debates about the slavery issue and its extension into the new territories. …show more content…

Both slave and free states watched carefully to see which side California would be on. The south was hoping to spread slavery through the land gained from the Mexican-American War (1846-48) and treaty with Mexico. The south also wanted laws passed to help recover slaves who had escaped into the free states in the North. This law was called the Fugitive Slave Law (Act). The North was very much against this law. The people of California decided they did not want slavery in their state. This caused the anger between the North and South continue to get worse.
Henry Clay, a senator from Kentucky, proposed several measures in an attempt to save the Union. This was called the Compromise of 1850. It included the following measures: 1) California enters the union as a free state, 2) the territories of Utah and New Mexico will be able to decide for themselves if they want to be free or slave states 3) enforcement of a strict fugitive slave law 4) abolition of slave trade in the District of Columbia (Washington, DC) 5) Payment to Texas of $10,000,000 to give up certain claims to New Mexico and land north of Missouri Compromise line

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