Ever since America worked under the Constitution, compromise was a sufficient way to keep the unity of the states together. However, it was the increasing tensions surrounding slavery that eventually led to the fallout of compromise in 1860. Between 1820 and 1860, there were several attempts to make political compromises, but these ultimately failed. Attempts at compromise only postponed the issues at hand and resulted in even bigger disputes between the North and the South, which led to the Civil War. Due to conflicts relating to slavery and discrimination, disagreements were hard to settle.
Nationalism also helped the push for westward expansion and the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine is a policy of the United States introduced on December 2, 1823. It stated that further efforts by European countries to colonize land or interfere with states in the Americas would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention. However, this did not last long and was broken predominantly by the Panic of 1819, which caused mass bank failures, unemployment shot up, and a slump in agriculture. The Panic of 1819 was the first major financial crisis and depression the U.S. faced.
At this time there was a struggle between northern states(anti-slave states) and southern states(slave states). Both wanter to maintain power of government without the other trying to as well. This was shown when Tallmadge and Thomas both came up with amendments for congress’ conundrum. Tallmadge was a northerner who didn’t want slavery to exsist in the newly found state. Not because of the morality of it all but because he didn’t want the south to maintain more power.
Abolitionists faced bitter and violent opposition in both the North and South. The Civil War began due to the tension between the North and South, and only escalated after Lincoln’s election, as some feared he would restrict or end slavery. Lincoln delivered the “House Divided Speech” in Springfield, Illinois, on June 16th 1858, “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave
This in-turn upsetted the North. The North were against slavery: * Thought that slavery would threaten their values and sense of worth ethic. * Valued equality. * Couldn’t compete with slave labour and wanted a tariff on imported goods. (As the south was mainly agricultural, they heavily relied on imported goods that they couldn’t produce themselves) Missouri Compromise.
Causes of Disunion in the United States In the late 17 and 1800s, the United States began to split between the North and the South. The North and the South had many conflicting views, but their contrasting views over slavery were the most significant motives for the beginning of the Civil War and disunion of the early United States. After the western territory was claimed by the U.S., everyone had a vision of what could be. The Southerners wanted to keep their “southern way of life”, while the people of the north saw a future of hope and one where western homesteads would not improve if they were full of cultivated plantations ran by numerous enslaved workers. People all over the country felt that the deciding factor for freeing slaves would affect their own lives.
The war was due to a culmination of events ranging from the institution of slavery, its implications on society, and the economic impact slavery was having on society. The American Civil War was also due to an uneasy alliance between the Northern and Southern congressman that after many decades of compromise and conciliation, their bipartisanship failed and in their views there could be no more compromise. Arguably the North and South both believed that they were fighting a war against political oppression and the condemnation of a way of life, the North believed they were fighting for free economic expansion and later the emancipation of a people, while the South believed they were fighting for their own rights and way of life. The American Civil War was more than a war about slavery, and the extension of slavery; it was a war of states’ rights over federal, it was also a technological push for industrialization over the continuing agricultural mode of living. The war did not erupt in 1820 because a compromise was reached.
How important was the issue of slavery in causing the American Civil war? Due to slavery America was divided into two halves, the North and the South, both had very different and in some cases radical views. Firstly the more industrialised North generally was through and through against slavery as many felt it was immoral but also realised that if you paid your workforce you would increase your means of production and efficiency which helped them become more industrialised. However the south was reluctant to give up their slaves and felt that they were doing the slaves a favour in keeping them, housing them and feeding them. They were like children and would not survive by themselves.
Slavery was the main cause of tension in the US in the 1800’s that led to the American civil war, the question over slavery was the initial and arguably one of the only causes to divide the north and the south starting in the 1820’s and ending years later in 1865. In 1819 there were 22 states in the US, 11 free and 11 slave and the balance of slavery and freedom was balanced, however Missouri applied to enter the Union as a slave state. The north were outraged and denied the request, which led to very heated debates in Congress causing great tension between the north and the south. It wasn’t until a year later that a compromise was completed which stated that no state or territory in the Louisiana Purchase Territory and above the 36 30 line could become a slave stated. To balance the problem the north created and made Maine a free state, as Missouri had become slave.
It soon became evident that the South was loosing hold on their part of the government, something that became clear when talk of the abolition of slavery rolled around; it wasn't so much an issue that the government sought to abolish slavery as that ordering it on a Federal level was in violation of the Tenth Amendment and states' rights. This strain only grew worse when the two main political parties of the time, the "Whigs" and the Democrats, began to fracture over regional lines. The "Whigs" merged north and formed what we know today as the Republican party. Given all of these volatile circumstances happened near or around the same time, a conflict was nearly