Though, there were many contributions to the downfall of the Union during the 1800’s, the major issues were due to lack of communication. The constitution was misinterpreted and left out many key topics. One of the many stressed topics was slavery. The resolution was far worse than they would have imagined, but it was much needed.
In 1820, Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state, and Maine as a free state. This was called the Missouri Compromise. At the time, there were 22 states and half were free states, the other half, slave states. Many were confused as to how this would even work because the slaves would just be able to run away to free states. This compromise was to maintain a balance between the slave states and the free states in the Senate. Though it was to maintain peace, it only brought trouble. The Compromise of 1850 made it so that the fugitive slave act was in motion and abolished the slave trade in Washington, D.C. This compromise also made California a slave-free state.
In 1854, the Missouri compromise was set aside and declared unconstitutional. The Kansas-Nebraska Act canceled out the Missouri compromise and made it so slavery was legal again since it was unconstitutional to deny slavery when the congress didn’t have the authority to deny it.
…show more content…
In 1857, the Supreme Court decision denied African Americans any citizenship rights. This meant that even the freed slaves would not receive any citizen rights. The Court declared that slavers were property and this completely sealed any possibility of the free-states’ return since the Missouri Compromise. Finally, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln stepped up and began the process to resolution. Lincoln opposed the expansion of slavery into the territories. He beat out the three candidates and became president. As the 16th president, Abraham Lincoln would be a hero for thousands of
Underlying issues of slavery in American society at the time is what made adding these new states from the territories become problematic. Specifically, the state of missouri wanted to be admitted into the union as a slave state. However, many of the northerners in the union saw this as a threat to the current balance/ratio of slave to free states. Luckily, around the same time, Maine wished to be brought into the union as well. Due to this, the Missouri compromise was drawn up, allowing Missouri to enter as a slave state and Maine as free, keeping the balance in the Senate in check once again.
By the 1850s the Constitution, originally framed as an instrument of national unity, had become a source of sectional discord and tension and ultimately contributed to the failure of the union it had created as can be seen by, Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott Decision. During the Compromise of 1850, the Northern states had prohibited slave trade and California was admitted as a free state. However, the Southern states permitted slave holding and had no slavery restrictions in Utah or New Mexico territories. The Fugitive Slave Acts of 1850 said that all runaway slaves have to be returned to their masters, however, the problem with this is people would go to free states and
missouri as a slave or free state would majorly disrupt the balance of the U.S.'s free vs. slave areas (surfacing debate over if slavery should be permitted at all in America). The compromise prevented any further expansion of pro-slave territories as well as fortified the Fugitive Slave Law. The forced the non-slaveowners tp participate in slavery.
It forced them to travel all the way to Canada instead of closer free states to find freedom. Even though it was part of a compromise between the North and the South act favored the South. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise was created to help resolve the debate over the border of slave and free state. It only lasted for about thirty years before the South and North started to debate over what was a free state and slave state over the new territory on the West Coast.
The Compromise of 1850 was an attempt by the U.S Congress to settle divisive issues between the North and South, including slavery expansion, apprehension in the North of fugitive slaves, and slavery in the District of Columbia. The Compromise of 1850 failed because Senator John C. Calhoun from the South and Senator William Seward from the North could not agree on what Henry Clay was putting down. Part of the compromise was to make California a slavery free state which benefits the North, and enforcing a stricter fugitive slave law which benefits the South. Both the North and South opposed what the other was benefiting from. What sparked the failure of the Compromise was the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
This compromise allowed for the unjust international slave trade to continue until the year 1808. This was to ban the government from regulating the importation of slaves so the southern states could stop the spread of slavery and keep it inside their territory. It also allowed for the state of Maine to join the Union as a so-called slave state; they did this to maintain a balance between the slave owner states and the free states of the United
The Missouri Compromise was a rule that regulated slavery in the southern states. America did this to even out the Non-Slave states and the Slavery states. This compromise was made in 1820 by Henry Clay. Henry Clay was a lawyer and a politician that was very involved in the Missouri Compromise of 1820.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act removed the provision that slavery would not extend north of the 36-30 line. The Missouri Compromise seemed to settle the issue of slavery at the time being, but it’s true issues still were on the road for civil outbreak in the future. “Further compromises and Supreme Court decisions would play a role in the great debates” over slavery and weather it should be completely abolished. Many people had feared the Missouri Compromise would break apart the union, but majority of the population had not recognized these threats for another four decades when Civil War unleased between the union and the Confederacy where the issue of slavery was ultimately
The Compromise of 1850 was a serial publication of laws that attempted to change The territorial and slavery disagreements arising from the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848. The five laws, legal philosophy, balanced the interests of the slave states of the South. California turned into a free state. The Texas Lone-Star State received financial help for claiming the lands of the west of the Rio Grande in what is now known as the territory of New Mexico also including what is now known as Arizona and Utah were organized without any specific prohibition of slavery. The slave trade, but not slavery itself was abolished in Washington, D.C.; and the Fugitive Slave law was passed, requiring all U.S. citizens to help in the return of all runaway
The Revolutionary War was fought with the intention of emancipation of from a greater power and being able to enjoy the rights of self-government and self-determination. Many enslaved African Americans related to the rebel’s cause and their struggle to be free. They believe that once the United States gained its freedom, they would be freed as well. However this was not the case.
America’s founders created the constitution in order to create unification and order in the United States. However, there have been controversy surrounding the interpretation of the constitution, this has caused debate over many issues within the country. These issues and the lack of wartime policy within the constitution directly lead to the Civil War, which was one of the worst alterations this nation has faced. The Missouri compromise, the Dred Scott decision, and Bleeding Kansas were controversial issues surrounding the constitution that directly lead to the Civil War.
It was proposed by Stephen A. Douglas–Abraham Lincoln’s opponent in the influential Lincoln-Douglas debates–the bill overturned the Missouri Compromise’s use of 36°30’ line as the boundary between slave and free territory. This was Douglas’s effort to bring Nebraska into the union and paved way for the north to make a transcontinental railroad. By the time Kansas was admitted to statehood in 1861 after an internal civil war, southern states had begun to secede from the Union. The conflicts that arose between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers in the aftermath of the act’s passage led to the period of violence known as Bleeding Kansas, and helped paved the way for the American Civil War
The Dred Scott V. Sanford case of 1857 declared that African Americans were not citizens of the United States and did not receive the same support from the Federal Government. During this time the Congress also lacked the power to ban slavery in all territories belonging to the United States. In 1850 Dred Scott and his family were declared free under the state court however, this did not last long. The Supreme Court of Missouri revoked the Scott’s family freedom which led him to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court denied him citizenship of the U.S. even if he was a citizen of a free state.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was an attempt by Congress to ease some of the political rivalries between the North and the South (history.com 2009). The compromise stated the fact that all states up north would not have slavery and all states south would allow and continue the act of slavery (history.com 2009). It went both ways since it split the country up evenly between slave and free. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was handwritten by Henry Clay in 1820 (ancestralfindings.com 1995). On March 6th of 1820, President James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise and made it the new law of the land (loc.gov 2017).
The issue the compromise was about was whether there should be slavery in the western territories. Maine wanted to be added to the Union, however, slavery was banned there. If Maine were to be added to the Union, it would upset the balance between free and slave states in the nation and the Senate. So, the Missouri Compromise, proposed by Senator Henry Clay, allowed Maine to enter the Union as a free state, and allowed Missouri to be entered into the Union as a slave state.