The Free Soil Party

Discuss the rationale and ramifications of turning to the slaves for both sides and the impact on the slaves as a result.

A major issue that caused major sectional discord was the constitutionality of slavery. In the constitution there was no mention of slavery of fears that it would divide the nation,

By the year of 1860, the North and the South was developed into extremely different sections. There was opposing social, economic, and political points of view, starting back into colonial periods, and it slowly drove the two regions farther in separate directions. The two sections tried to force its point of view on the nation as a whole. Even though negotiations had kept the Union together for many years, in 1860 the condition was unstable. The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln was observed by the South as a risk to slavery and many believe it initiated the war.

In the North opposition to slavery and the belief that the country can not survive divided were becoming the more dominant train of thoughts. Abraham Lincoln said that “a house divided can not stand” . He felt that either the country would be all slave or all free, but he knew fully that abolitionists would not give up. He also felt though that this issue would be resolved and that he did “not expect the Union to be dissolved” . He obviously thought that the South would give up easier, but he was wrong. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe she shows how evil slavery was in Document C by basically showing the cruelty that slaves had to endure and that Southern slave holders were evil with no remorse. She shows that slaves are mistreated and that this can not go on (P-C). With political leaders such as Lincoln believing that someone, particularly the South, would give in and authors such as Stowe showing the evils of slavery people in the North were bound to believe that slavery should be abolished. With more and more people feeling strongly about this in the North a conflict was bound to occur.

slavery, but the power had shifted from the South’s slave owning plantations to the Northern

Potter argues there are four basic position held by politicians of free and slave states in their views on solving the territorial issue. The first was David Wilmot’s, “that Congress possessed power to regulate slavery in the territories and should use it for the total exclusion of the institution.” The second proposal was to extend the 36 degree Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, allowing slavery south of this line. The Third, known as the popular sovereignty proposal, is where the territorial government, not Congress, possesses the control over the decisions on slavery in the territory. The fourth, contends “that

popular sovereignty was the nation's topic during the 1850s. It was included in several important files including the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Compromise of 1850. famous sovereignty, or the capacity of a country to determine whether or no longer allow slavery, turned into visible as a right with the aid of the Southern states and a obvious violation of the national group spirit and supremacy of the constitution by way of the Northern states. The Southerners and Northerners both wondered if the the brand new states had slaves, so that they went into new territories to vote and affect the vote . In the end, this led to fighting in the territories and new states,causing one specifically fight-troubled nation to become referred to

There were several points at issue: The United States had recently acquired a vast territory -- the result of its war with Mexico. Should the territory allow slavery, or should it be declared free? Or maybe the inhabitants should be allowed to choose for themselves?

requested  for  admission  into  the  union  as  a  slave  state.  However,  the  issue  between  factions   of

equal, and the social issue of slavery as a whole became prominent to our young nation.  From

The added territories gained from the war with Mexico caused the controversy over the question of slavery between the North and the South. Following the Mexican War there were bitter debates in Congress, in state legislatures

During the 19th century, so known “peculiar institution” of slavery dominated labor systems of the American South, also dominated most production in the US and led to a boost of the economy of the New Republic. By the 1850 's, US had become a country segregated into two regional identities, known as the Slave South and the Free North. While the South maintained a pro-slavery identity that supported and protected the expansion of slavery westward, the North largely held abolitionist views and opposed the slavery’s westward expansion. Until the 1850 's the nation uncertainly balanced the slavery subject between the two opponents. However, the acquisition of the Louisiana territories in 1803 by the Jefferson administration doubled the size of the US and the victory in the Mexican-American War extended the territory to the Pacific which quadrupled the area of the US. Ultimately, the territorial expansion led to the spread of slavery. In this essay, I will describe some of the reasons for the expansion of slavery including its influence in national politics, and consequences such as political debates and crises of 1850’s.

Thus, the issue of slavery economically and politically polarized the Country

In the early years of the 19th century, slavery was more than ever turning into a sectional concern, such that the nation had essentially become divided along regional lines. Based on economic or moral reasoning, people of the Northern states were increasingly in support of opposition to slavery, all the while Southerners became united to defend the institution of slavery. Brought on by profound changes including regional differences in the pattern of slavery in the upper and lower South, as well as the movement of abolitionism in the North, slavery in America had transformed from an issue of politics into a moral campaign during the period of 1815-1860, ultimately polarizing the North and the South to the point in which threats of a Southern disunion would mark the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 (Goldfield et. al, The American Journey, p. 281).

Despite the fact that senators were selected by the state parliaments until 1913, Lincoln and Douglas took their contentions straight to the citizens. The time of the operations, the setting of sectional enmity in which it was argued, the slavery issue,