How did compromises previous to the Civil War help cause the Civil War?

Answer 1

During the early nineteenth century, the United States was suffering from sectionalism and slavery issues. The country was having much trouble to please both the North and the South, due to the fact that the North wanted to abolish slavery, while the South thought it was necessary to continue the use of it. As the United States tried to create compromises, either the North or the South would disagree with the compromise. Once South Carolina had threatened to secede the Union due to the Compromise of 1833, Due to the Tariff of Abomination, the Compromise of 1833 is what convinced South Carolina not to secede. In order to preserve the Union, Congress created compromises that by 1860 had not satisfied the opposing views on issues regarding states rights and slavery.

With the North and the South disputing over slavery, the Missouri Compromise was drawn up to satisfy the rights between the two feuding areas. This Compromise solved the issue on the annexation of Missouri by allowing Missouri to enter as a slave state, but at the same time admitted Maine as free state in order to keep the balance. At the same time, the 36'30 line was created, which stated that everything above the line was free and everything below the line was slave. This Compromise did settle the arguments that had erupted, but there were still the citizens who were strongly opposing either slavery or free states. These certain citizens wanted the entire nation to be entirely slavery or entirely free. However, once Jackson put a high tariff on Northern goods being transported, things took a turn for the worse.

With this new tariff of abominations in play, South Carolina felt that it was absurd and over priced. Once they tried to nullify this overly priced tariff, they were denied the right, which led up to South Carolina threatening to secede. They felt as if their rights as a state would give them the right to nullify a tariff such as this one. Once Jackson found out that South Carolina threatened to secede, he stated that he was going to send his army and hang anybody who secedes. With all of this commotion, Henry Clay drafted the Compromise of 1833, which lowered the tariff of abominations by 10%. This pleased South Carolina, and prevented them from seceding.

Slavery still was not a settled issue, and was rising as more dogmatic people were speaking up. The South was then able to disable any form of anti-slavery petition from being read by Congress. With this new belief, known as the Gag Resolution, all bills and papers pertaining to slavery was tabled. Anti-Slavery people felt as if their rights were being disrupted since under the First Amendment, they had a right to petition. Since the United States was expanding, the nation was having trouble with the feuding north and south on slavery.

Once California was annexed as a free state, the south grew fear of the north over powering them. With this in mind, tension and sectionalism grew in the south causing Congress to draft something to please them. Once the Compromise of 1850 was created, and as a result Stricter Fugitive Slave laws were created, galvanizing the north to fight back. The north felt as if the new laws on slavery were against their states rights in Article IV, which allowed for a slave to escape into a different state and to be under the laws of the new state they are in. This caused the north to bring this issue all the way up to the Supreme Court in the case known as Prigg V. PA. At the same time, the Mexican Cession was established into the Utah and New Mexico Territory. Within these territories, the Compromise suggested that popular sovereignty would be used to solve the issue on whether the territory was slave or free. This made the north even more furious due to the fact that they wanted an end to slavery.

Slavery was growing and causing sectionalism between the north and the south. Dred Scott, a slave who had traveled between the north and the south with his owner, attempted to bring a case to the Supreme Court and prove that since he has lived in the north, he is free. Scott's plan back fired, in the case Dred Scott v. Stanford when Roger Taney ruled that al African American's were not citizen's of the United States, and also declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional stating that it takes away from a person property. This pleased the south, but angered the north. As a result, a majority of the northerners did not follow these new rules and still aided slaves for their quest for freedom. With new states being admitted into the nation, Congress sought to create a compromise that would settle the feuding north and south.

Once Kansas and Nebraska's territory was settled, the issue of whether they were a free or slave state became a problem. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was enacted in order to help settle the disputes. This act perturbed that north because of the fact that it repealed the Compromise of 1820. Kansas and Nebraska were allowed to choose through Popular Sovereignty and vote whether they were a free state or a slave state. With this idea, the New England Emigrant Aid Society paid anti-slavery supporters to move Kansas in order to create the state a free state. At the same time, the southern Boarder Ruffians told pro-slavery supporters to move to Kansas to vote for it to become a slave state. With all of this chaos, the Boarder Ruffians went into an anti-slavery area and burnt it down. With Bleeding Kansas occurring, Preston Smith Brooks who was a Democratic Congressman from South Carolina physically attacked Senator Charles Sumner, beating him until his cane broke. In response, a zealot known as John Brown moved his family to Kansas. Once he found out about this situation, he commanded his sons to drag the men who started the fire out of their houses and gag them to death. This was known as the Pottawattamie Massacre, which shows how there is always different opposing views to situation and how it can get out of had from the strong supporters.

As a new Compromise was created, in order to improve it, Congress would create a new Compromise. With each Compromise, new issues would arise causing the United States to grow more sectionalism over states rights and slavery. Overall, Congress new that if a new Compromise were to be created, the opposing north and south would find something that wouldn't please themselves. With all of these new disputes, the nation's sectionalism was expanding, and becoming a major issue. The United States new that it was almost impossible to solve the disputes through Compromise, and they could tell that the brink of the Civil War was on its way.