McKenna Krul

Mr. Widenhofer
Honors US History
16 January 2018

Long Essay Question

During the 1840s and 1850s, immigration was becoming very popular in America. Most

immigrants were moving to the North, therefore, leading the North’s population to flourish. This

was also around the time of the first Industrial Revolution in the North; while the North, with

help from mass amounts of textile mills, was becoming more industrial, the South became more

agricultural, thus their hunger for slavery grew as well. Slavery and abolitionist ideas became

one of the most controversial topics at the time. Controversy over the extension of slavery helped

lead to the civil war by divisional, economical, and political issues from the time of 1845 to

1861.

With the South being pro-slavery and the North not agreeing with their logic, there was a

strong, clear sense of diversity. It was obvious the North and South could not agree, on terms of

slavery, which states would remain free and which states would be slave. For example, when

states such as California and Texas wanted to join the Union, there was always preceding issues

and arguments over whether they would be slave or free. When slavery began to spread west into

the territories, it was the same issue. The south wanted so badly to maintain the balance in the

Senate (of free and slave states) that they would fight and argue for a new state to become a slave

one. The North and South issues created a sense of diversity that would eventually lead to the

Civil War.
 Many economic issues were in place, as well. In 1846, the United States gained a large

piece of land, the Mexican Cession. David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, proposed the Wilmot

Proviso which stated there was to be no slavery in the Mexican Cession; this was shot down

various times by Senate. Another issue that arose was the Deed Scott Case, which stated that

“slaves were property, and property can be moved wherever,” whether it was a slave or free state.

This disputed anger from the North, who was anti-slavery. This lead to John Brown’s attempt of

a slave rebellion when he raided the federal arsenals to load slaves with the proper weaponry

they needed to rebel. With the various economic issues occurring, the Civil War was soon to be a

result.

Politics played a major role in the beginning of the Civil War. In 1849, California wanted

to join as a free state, which would only get shot down by the South, who wanted another slave

state. With the Compromise of 1850, California was declared a free state, angering the South. In

1858, the Douglass-Lincoln Debates occurred. This event angered the South once again due to

Douglass’ “solution” of minimizing their farm size. This led to a fracture in the Democratic

Party. Finally, when Lincoln was elected as President, the South seceded from the Union, after

their various threats in the past: Missouri Compromise, Nullification Crisis, and Texas

Annexation. As you can see, due to slavery extending into the West (causing many issues), the

North and South could not settle on an agreement, and the Civil War was soon to come.

Long before these issues, the Missouri Compromise took place. Missouri wanted to

become a free state, but instead, the Missouri Compromise was put together by none other than

Henry Clay. It stated there was to be no slavery above the 36◦30◦ line, not including Missouri.
This shows how as the Nation grew older and larger, the rational to move on and compromise

decreased, and almost became an impossible task.