Apush Civil War

Karen Lopez: APUSH: Period 2: November 17, 2017
There were numerous events and crisis during the 1850’s that contributed to the advent of the Civil War. Choose three and analyze the relative significance of each in contributing to the advent of the Civil War. With the end of the Mexican American War, the revolving issue of slavery once again arose. The war did not have universal support from the American people because the northerners feared that new states in the West would become slave states, thus tipping the balance in Congress in favor of slavery. The outcome of the Wilmot Proviso, a congressional bill prohibiting slavery from Mexico, fell along sectional lines. Over the next decades, the Democrats would become heavily dominated by the

However, now the South wanted to attempt to open slavery to other territories and their first step was popular sovereignty which would set the precedent for problems to come. Although it can be argued that the Civil War become inevitable as a result of the chain of multiple events, the Kansas and Nebraska Act, followed by the Dred Scott decision, and the Compromise of 1850 in order proved to be the most influential to the dissolution into war. One of the most important causes of the Civil war was the Kansas and Nebraska Act because it would become the ultimate battleground for proslavery and antislavery settlers. As 1854 began many Americans believed that the line from the Missouri Compromise provided permanent agreement separating slave and free territory. As the slavery issue was diminishing, political leaders were able to focus on their other various needs which included the need for the transcontinental railroad. Stephen A. Douglas longed to break the North-South deadlock over westward expansion and stretch the line of settlements across the continent. Moreover, he has invested heavily in Chicago real

During the Gold rush settlers flooded California with fortune seekers hoping to become rich. California desired statehood and had already drawn up a state constitution but the South opposed the bid for Statehood. The debate grew so hostile that Southern legislators began to discuss openly the possibility of secession. Southerners repeated that any law that threatened slavery would lead to secession. Additionally, the South feared the North's growing political power which was augmented by the surge of immigrants. Northern States held a commanding majority in the House of representatives and there was an equal division between the slave and free states which enabled the South to maintain a veto power in the Senate. Henry Clay, the “Great Compromiser” created six proposals that would offer concession, one to the North and open to the South. The bill admitted California as a free state , at the price of a stronger fugitive slave law, created territories of Utah and New Mexico, and allowed popular sovereignty when it came time for each to write its constitution. Most importantly, the compromise abolished the slave trade but not slavery itself arguing it was immoral to buy and sell humans. The sectional forces would soon gather strength and lead to the ultimate disunion. The Compromise of 1850 bought a decade of delay