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Civil War Dbq Essay

1142 Words5 Pages

Isabel Prinzi
Mr. Falgiano
AP U.S. History, Per 8, Pre Civil War DBQ
17 January 2023 To truly achieve compromise, the parties involved must be willing to sacrifice a part of their beliefs and values. There are times when finding a middle ground cannot be achieved, leading to prolonged frustration and stalemate. The Civil War brought to light an issue that had been stalking the land since the founding fathers signed the documents that celebrated the fact that all men were created equal and were endowed by their Creator. Long before the Civil War took place, the North and South were at odds. Each side was unwilling to fully bend to the other. The North’s main focus was to stop slavery from spreading, and some of the more radical Northerners …show more content…

The North never wanted the South to break away from the union. A prominent senator from Kentucky, Henry Clay rose to fame when he was younger as a war hawk in the war of 1812. Now as an older man, he understood the costs of war and wanted to avoid it. He was certain that the South would never fully go through with the threat of secession and that they were just bluffing (Document 1). While the North thought that the South would never secede, it eventually did, and that destroyed the compromises that were created. Daniel Webster tried to get the two sides to compromise and stay together, telling the North to let slavery stay in the south and telling the South that if they secede there will be war (Document 4). Secession was never the right answer if the Union was to be maintained. It destroyed the point of compromise and created the Civil War. When the South seceded, compromise was no longer able to help the union stay …show more content…

With this great divide, American citizens put their regional preferences over national interests. The North and the South both had different motives and each side was moving more and more to opposite ends of the spectrum. When the sides of an issue are no longer feeling united by a bigger force, the smaller issues become less compromisable. For example, the Caning of Sumner was caused by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The picture in document 5 shows a southern representative beating a northern representative because of his ideas and the speech he gave beforehand. The sentiment expressed in this editorial reflects the turmoil of the situation in that a person who has a difference of opinion or disagrees with someone else there is a negative consequence that comes with it. A person risks physical harm from a difference of opinion. If a person cannot give their opinion without the risk of violence, then compromise is not even on the table. An article in the New York Tribune claims that the North is unfit for society compared to the South (Document 6). While both sides are different in economics, politics, and culture, neither side is above the other because of those differences. Pushing the other side down to build one’s side up, does not help bring compromises and peace throughout the union. Abraham Lincoln stated that the debate on slavery was

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