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Sectional Crisis

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Sectional Crisis
Sectional Crisis Leading to the civil war there were a plethora of things that impacted the unity of the nation as a whole. Two major events that contributed to this were the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas Nebraska Act. Both of these events changed the relationship of the nation in many ways. The Compromise of 1850 was a compromise that stated California would be admitted as a free state, the slave auction would end in Washington D.C, settlers of Mexico and Utah would decide whether it would be considered a free or slave state through popular sovereignty, and lastly it stated that the Fugitive Slave Act would be enacted. These four things had an extreme affect on the national unity. This compromise made the southerners furious, and not only did they feel like they didn’t have a say, they felt like the north was embarrassed of them. The south felt as though it was unfair that the north got to choose that California as a whole was a free state, without consent from them, especially since almost half of that land should have belonged to them following the Missouri Compromise. What gave the north the right to make the decisions that will ultimately affect the nation as a whole? The south was built off of slavery, slavery auctions, and anything that was related to slavery and when Washington, D.C, our nations capitol banned slave auctions from their area the southerners felt very down, almost as though they were an embarrassment to the nation. When the nation found out that the settlers themselves, of Mexico and Utah got to decide whether the territories would be admitted as slave or free states extremists from both the north and south made their way to these territories with intentions of admitting the new territories in their favor. Lastly, was the Fugitive Slave act which the south was actually benefiting from; in the beginning. For once, the north didn’t benefit and they were furious, they didn’t think it was their responsibility to capture run away slaves and return them to their slave owners. After a while the north just fully ignored the fugitive slave act, which once again made the south furious. Basically, the Compromise of 1850 benefited the north greatly, and made the south furious, ultimately contributing to the disunity of the north and south as one whole nation. A second event that had an enormous impact on the national unity was the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which was the opening of lands for settlement. The initial purpose for this act was to open up thousands of farms, and to make the land feasible for a Midwestern railroad, all planned by the one and only Steven Douglas. The only twist was the new territory was going to be admitted as a free or slave state through popular sovereignty. Therefore, this act affected the nation’s unity greatly because by allowing the territory to be admitted as a free or slave state through popular sovereignty went against the Missouri Compromise, which had been holding the nation together for more than thirty years. Due to this, the Missouri Compromise had to be repealed, ultimately opening land above the 36°30 line to popular sovereignty, resulting in outraged northerners. News of this caused pro-slavery and anti-slavery people to flood the territory, leaving the north fearful of the spread of slavery. Political disunity was one of the things affected the most because almost every northern Whig opposed the bill while almost every southern Whig voted in favor of it. Most of the southern Whigs made their way into a democratic party while the northerners and other anti-slavery people reorganized themselves into a republican party; the party of Abraham Lincoln who was running for president at that time. Both the north and the south created there own ‘capitals’ and ‘constitutions’ going against the constitution that got them to where they are today, because each of them wanted to live life the way they wanted. Northerners and Southerners were becoming overly stubborn at this time. The act was just adding fuel to the fire, and animosity between the north and south just got worse over time. This Kansas-Nebraska act led to the series of violent political conferences between anti-slavery abolitionist extremists and pro-slavery extremists; an even known as Bleeding Kansas. Although there was a large amount of tension between the north and south over slavery, land, and what would be considered slave or free prior to the Kansas Nebraska Act, it was just the icing on the cake. It caused the south to still question why the north believes they can make all of the decisions for the nation, and it left the north outraged by repealing a compromise that has benefited them greatly for over thirty years. In conclusion, there were many events that had impacted the national unity of our nation for years but the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansa-Nebraska Act were two very important events. They caused the south to feel as though they had no voice and always got the short end of the stick, while it gave the north more reason to be against the spread of slavery. The people of the north and south became extremely stubborn over time, and wanted everything to be there way. In their eyes there was no compromising, and if something didn’t go their way they would just ignore it. Each of these events increased tension and hatred between the north and south ultimately dividing the nation into two sections with completely different views, ways of life, and attitudes.

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