In the years before the Civil War in the United States, almost all sectional conflicts were about the slave issue. It all started with the dialogues over the three-fifths clause found at the 1787 Constitutional Convention (Hutchinson, 2015). The meeting addressed how slaves would be counted when determining a state's populace and as soon consequence, its representation in Congress (Eskridge, 2011).
During the first half of the 19th Century, Southern politicians strived to defend slavery by upholding control of the federal government. The arrival of new state meant that compromises had to be made to preserve a balanced amount of liberal and slave states. This did not happen following the additions of Free states between 1858 and 1859.According to Hutchinson (2015), the increase of the gap between liberal and slave states represented the transformations taking place in each area.
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According to Eskridge (2011), the South had an agrarian plantation economy with a slow development in population, while the North had welcomed industrialization, infrastructure development, and large city regions. Prior to the Civil War in 1861, 7 of the 8 immigrants to America settled in the North where many of them came with unconstructive viewpoints about slavery. Southern efforts to preserve equality in the government were doomed by the boost in population.
The political problem that eventually shifted the United States towards the Civil War was that of slavery in the western lands conquered in the course of the Mexican-American War (Hutchinson, 2015). The end of this particular war saw America gaining the land between California and Texas. This then laid down the conflict over whether this territory should be liberal or slave land (Eskridge, 2011). California immediately applied for entry into the Union as a liberal state, thus tipping the equality power in the Senate.
A series of measures referred to as the 'Compromise of 1850' followed in an effort to please both Southern and Northern congressmen, and create a more equitable balance of authority. However, an enormous influx of settlers arriving in Nebraska and Kansas lands tested the Compromise, to determine via popular rule whether or not slavery would be allowed in each area. Conflict, violence, and ballot rigging eventually resulted in a Civil War (Hutchinson, 2015).
References
Eskridge, L. (2011). After 10 years, we still ask: Why 'this cruel war'? Canton, IL: Canton Daily Ledger.
Hutchinson, C. (2015). A history of American Civil War literature . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
