Apush Dbq Compromise Of 1850

When the Constitution was created to establish national unity, the makers did not outline the subject that would plague a source of discord between the North and South, slavery. Whereas, the Constitution under loose and strict interpretations manifested the divide between the union and confederacy. In consideration to the South heavily relying on “Cotton King,” as their source of income, slavery had become relied upon within their society, and they were unwilling to relinquish their labor force. This eventually brought the South into a defensive stance over “slave labor” as the North began to visibly oppose the injustice after Uncle Tom’s Cabin became a phenomena throughout the North and abroad depicting slave life. Therefore, the tension

Thus, the Compromise of 1850 became a temporary band-aid to the issue as the North received California as a free-soil state and the South agreed because of the stricter Fugitive Slave Code (Doc A). This obtained free-soil state assisted in the sectionalism growth in the United States as the power in government tilted towards northern favor from emerging free-soil and the previous Missouri Compromise boundaries for slavery. While the southern states were in desire of obtaining new slave territory, but their inability to expand slavery into their purchased territories tipped the equilibrium between the two (Doc B). Since the constitution outlined property, the southerners felt strongly about their deemed rights over their slaves because they were viewed as property. These emotions tie similar to the Dred Scott v. Sandford case, where the Supreme Court extended the clause of slavery into any territory because slaves, like Dred Scott, were claimed as property and the government was incapable of robbing a person of their property. Consequently, claiming any state can have slavery within its borders surprised the South and brought discontent from the

Thus, the South desired their lifestyle to be left alone, and if refused, the Constitution would be violated in one portion, which provoked the mentality to succeed from the union (Doc G). While the South argued for the right to own slaves since the idea of property is linked to the constitution, the North used the Constitution to prove that slavery was unconstitutional. Proven through the strict interpretation of the Constitution,as the word ‘slaves’ and ‘slavery’ are not written anywhere within the Constitution. Therefore, these slaves are not protected by the government, and the Union does not stand with these Slaveholders (Doc E). In regards to differing viewpoints between the Confederacy and Union, the Constitution was bound to break under the pressure of slavery. Since the Union deemed the Constitution against the peculiar institution and the Confederacy claimed that the Constitution advocated their