Paper Topic:

American History 1850 to 1860

American History 1850 to 1860

A Founding Father , Thomas Jefferson , predicted that the issue of slavery which divided the nation was like a fireball in the night ' or nuclear holocaust upon America . A similar thinking of the poet and philosopher , Ralph Waldo Emerson , was that Mexico will poison us ' if America defeated Mexico . Both men prophesied death for America , which almost happened to a certain extent

The contentious issue of Slavery continued to divide America even in its period of expansion . The annexation of Texas , Oregon , California and New Mexico into

the Union created pride in the realization of America 's Manifest Destiny . The Southerners and the Northerners have not resolved the issue of open or close slavery for the new territory but neither would they settle to have half of both . The situation was made worse by the violence of Bleeding Kansas . Issues on fugitive slaves among others caused tension and the eventual dissolution of the two-party system . The Whig Party gave in to sectional pressure and broke up . The Democratic Party , tried to stay together but the constant disagreements between the Southerners and the Northern faction had weakened the coalition . The Republican Party was the majority of the North , the remnants of the Whigs and the Democrats , the Liberals and the rest who were anti-slavery and abolitionists . They were however the middle-ground between the radicals and the conservatives . It was in this uncertain political situation that the presidential campaign of 1860 began . The Northern Democrats fielded Stephen Douglas...

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