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Two Most Important And Difficult Questions Faced By The Members Of The Continental Congress In 1787

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Two of the most important and difficult questions faced by the members of the Continental Congress in 1787 concerned state sovereignty and slavery. The founding fathers left no clear solution to the questions of states’ rights or slavery, leaving the door open to years of debate and political wrangling. Between 1788 when the Constitution was officially ratified, through mid-1850, both issues created an environment of debate and compromise that would dominate politics for years. Unable to take a definitive stand on either issue, Congress chose to enact several laws that would create a compromise and push the problem into the future rather than deal with solving these important issues. This strategy of compromise eventually lead to the Kansas-Nebraska …show more content…

The question of slavery created a deep division among the delegates as many of the northern statesmen regarded slavery as illegal and should be abolished all together. Delegates from the southern states argued that slavery was an integral part of the southern agricultural and economic structure and opposed any plan that would create a stronger central government or include restrictions on the lucrative slave trade. The issue of slavery was treated as a political rather than a moral question that created consequences that legislators struggled with for over eighty years and lead to continued compromises such as the Kansas-Nebraska Act of …show more content…

The new transcontinental railway was viewed by many as way to transport slaves to the new western territories, except for the limitations of the Missouri Compromise. Even though Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas owned a significant number of shares in railroad stocks and had a vested interest in seeing that the railroad succeed in transporting people and cargo to the western territories, Senator Douglas developed a plan that created the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 (Garrison, 2016). The proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act would split the vast territory into two separate states where the people in each territory, not their legislatures, would decide if they should enter as a slave or free state through popular referendum. This significant portion of the act which Stephens defined as popular sovereignty is a key factor in the Kansas-Nebraska Act which also repealed the 1820 Missouri Compromise. As expected, Nebraska voted to enter as a free-state even though many pro-slavery southerners campaigned heavily to sway the population to vote for slavery. The outcome of the vote in Kansas would be determined by a census count and election that the territorial governor scheduled in March 1855. Not wanting to see the settlers of Kansas vote to become a free-state as well, pro-slavery supporters from Missouri rushed to Kansas

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One key issue between the two parts of the country was whether or not slavery would expand westward to any newly acquired territories. This had been an issue for a long time and ultimately after failing to reach a compromise the country fell back on popular sovereignty or letting people in the new territories decide whether or not they wanted slaver. This however provided no solution as can be seen in the incident “Bleeding Kansas”. This was a series of violent acts in Kansas between those who were for and against slaver.

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The Missouri Compromise wanted that to end. At the time, this compromise was seen as a critical agreement to preserve the balance of Congress. The United States congress admitted Missouri to the union as a state that allowed slavery and Maine as a free state. This ended up as Missouri being a free state and ending the slavery debate. The Kansas-Nebraska act, also known as the “Bleeding-Kansas” was the act that allowed

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SIMULATED CONGRESSIONAL HEARING SPEECH QUESTIONS Unit Three - What happened at the Philadelphia Convention? 1. Because of different economic systems, Northern and Southern states had different interests. These conflicting interests led to disagreements at the Philadelphia Convention. • Describe at least two disagreements between Northern and Southern states at the Convention.

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In many ways, and especially from the eyes of a Northerner, the largely Southern Democratic Platform forced slavery into society, particularly demanding its acceptance from the Free-Soil party with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This inevitably stirred sectional discord and fanned the flame of the rising Secessionist

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With the pressure following the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Act, many northerners opposed slavery and were concerned with the possibility of its expansion. In 1856, these northerners formed a new political party called the Republican Party. Once Abraham Lincoln was nominated as the Republican candidate, the South began making plans to secede from the union if Lincoln was elected as President of the United States. In the “South Carolina Declaration of Causes of Secession”, delegates state, “A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. ”15

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Imagine a being in line to vote for non-slavery in the newly established state, Kansas, right before the voting house became overfilled with southern voters voting on slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska act allowed the people of the Kansas and the Nebraska Territories to vote on whether the state is a non-slave or a slave state. The Kansas Nebraska act should have never happened because it overturned the Missouri compromise, violence broke out in kansas, and southern voters illegally voted in the kansas voting. One of the main reason why the Kansas-Nebraska act should have never happened is because it overturned the Missouri Compromise which was made official in 1820. For example, “To win southern support, Douglas proposed that slavery in the new

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A problem arose when Missouri was proposed as a possible new state to be admitted to the Union. This very quickly became the subject of a national debate. Prior to this proposition, there was an equal amount of pro slavery states in the south and anti slavery states in the north. This meant that the pro slavery and antislavery factions had equal representation in the United States Congress.

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was a bill that gave the settlers of the territory, Kansas and Nebraska, to decide whether slavery would be allowed or not. The bill proposed by Stephen A. Douglas, overruled the Missouri Compromise (a compromise that Missouri entered the Union as a slave state but slavery would be forbidden anywhere else in the Louisiana Purchase North of 36* 30’), a boundary between the free and the slave states. This bill split two major political parties at that time; which were: the Whig Party and the Democratic Party, but also helped on the unification of the Republican Party. The Democratic Party was split into two; the Northern and the Southern side.

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Moreover, there was much trouble in Kansas such as the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Kansas-Nebraska Act stated that two states, Kansas and Nebraska would be made up out of what was left of the Louisiana Purchase. These two territories could decide if they about slavery. Later, the people of Kansas wanted to separate their state into antislavery and pro-slavery groups. In March of 1855, elections for this idea began.

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The main issues of the Kansas-Nebraska bill go back to the beginning of the Revolutionary War and the idea that Americans have for self-government and self-reliance. The ideals they established from 1607-1776 were all based on their independent rights to govern themselves. England’s salutary neglect allowed each colony to create a mini country based on their own best ideas of government, religion, and social standards. The Articles of Confederation and the subsequent creation of a stronger constitution bound the individual states together in a new way. The leaders were trying to create a Union that could withstand the threat of foreign invasion and that could deal with the domestic conflicts arising from the independent states over paying

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Through the Louisiana Purchase, Missouri Compromise, Manifest Destiny, Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the United States developed a unique policy regarding new territories that would greatly affect history and slavery. Although expanding territory would be beneficial to a country if done correctly, the United States suffered fracturing division and eventual civil war indirectly as a result. With lingering questions over the definitions of slave and free states, the country would always face questions regarding slavery whenever a new state wished to enter the Union. Ultimately, the bond of the country would crumble and require reconstruction for many years to come. With endless controversy, unpopular decisions, and poor agreements,

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One issue they faced concerned how they would count slaves for legislative purposes. The free North states thought slaves shouldn’t be counted at all because it would give the slave states an unfair representation due to the high slave population. However, the South disagreed for they feared the Northern states would have a substantial population advantage if the slaves were not counted. They worried that the Northern states would use such an advantage against them to regulate or even abolish slavery. To appease the slavery states they enacted the Three-Fifths Compromise.

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Abraham Lincoln, Frederic Douglass, were one of the most appealing well-known speakers, people who did believe that slavery was morally wrong and devote their lives to fight for freedom. However, there are several differences between the view of the Constitution’s position differences between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Kansas-Nebraska Act indicated that the recognition of slavery should be determined by the decision of these residents (popular or squatter sovereignty). This act itself conflicted heavily with the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, which was essentially seen as the admittance of slavery anywhere in the country. This act made a political issue of confrontation between North and South.

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The U.S was only able to settle political disputes through compromise until 1860 because of the increasing sectionalism, the Abolitionist Movement and the Secession of South Carolina. New states joined into congress creating an unbalanced senate forcing congress to make decisions to balance the nation between freedom and slavery. The Missouri Compromise failed as an attempt to maintain peace between the North and South because it created an greater sense of sectionalism throughout the country. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a decision to make Missouri a slave state to maintain an even number of free and slave states. It led to uproar in congress and the North retaliated by declaring the rest of the Louisiana territory to be free.

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The Democrats endorsed the “popular sovereignty” approach to slavery expansion that was used in the Kansas-Nebraska act. Their platform stated that new territories should decide themselves whether to be slave or free by popular vote; however, anti-slavery northerners feared that this result in the expansion of slavery further westward, a major fear of the Republican party. The Republican

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