HS101 Discussion Week Five

The Civil War could be said to have begun long before the first shots were fired , as the North and the South grew increasingly different since the country was founded . The addition of new territories , the proliferation of slavery in some areas and its diminishment in others the expansion of the country , and the sectional crisis that ensued , as well as basic philosophical differences eventually led to the war . And while people imagine the North and the South to be easy to discern , the fact remains that the Civil War actually consisted of

every region in the United States , north , south , east , and west each playing a respective role

While the North relied on its industrial centers to forge ahead into the modern era , the South relied on slave labor to maintain its massive agrarian economy . The Mexican-American War was of crucial significance to many of these regional issues that helped result in the Civil War Largely a result of the victory , between 1845 and 1848 the United States added over a million square miles to its territory and Americans soon started to move into these new lands (Green , 1984 . As populations in these areas increased , so did the debate as to whether these new territories would support slavery as the South did or remain free like the North

The expansion of the Union and the admission of California ignited more passionate debate between the North and South . In hopes of preserving the Union and soothing the sectional crisis , Henry Clay proposed the Great Compromise ' of 1850 . It proposed that California would be admitted as a free state , other territories won from Mexico were to be divided into Utah and New Mexico , with the slavery issue left to the settlers slave trade would end in Washing D .C , and a stronger fugitive slave law would be enacted . Strongly opposed by those who felt compromise was impossible at that point , the Compromise of 1850 eventually succeeded and became law . Though the law appeared to be effective initially , it soon broke down , as states consistently passed personal liberty laws that undermined the fugitive slave laws , the continued efforts of abolitionists thwarted the essence of the compromise , and the Ostend Manifesto which spoke of possibly expanding the country by seizing Cuba and adding it as a slave state (Elkins 1972 . Despite the best efforts of Clay and his compromise , the opposing sides still failed to come to any agreements on the difficult issues . More legislation to come would also not only contribute to the growing tension , but lead to the earliest instances of violence between opposing sides of the slavery issue

REFERENCES

Elkins , S . M (1972 . Slavery : A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life

Chicago : University of Chicago Press

Green , R (1984 . The American Tradition . Columbus : Charles E . Merrill Publishing Co

HS101 Discussion Week Five...