How did the western expansion become inextricably linked with sectional identity during the 1840s?

Answer 1

Sectional, or regional, loyalties were present in Congress from the beginning, but they became stronger during and after the 1820s. As the North grew industrial, it sought protective tariffs (taxes on foreign goods imported into the United States) to protect its products. Because the South remained agricultural, it opposed tariffs that would raise the prices of the manufactured goods it needed. Southerners defended slavery, while an anti-slavery movement grew in the North. The new Western states had their own demands for roads and other internal improvements. Moreover, when Southerners migrated West, they wanted to be able to bring their slaves, but Northerners objected to slavery in the Western territories.

Congress served as the battleground for sectional rivalries and alliances. Although both the whigand Democratic parties were national organizations, electing members of Congress from all regions, increasingly members crossed party lines to stand together to defend their common sectional interests. John C. Calhoun (Democrat-South Carolina) articulated the Southern position in Congress, while Daniel Webster (Whig-Massachusetts) often spoke for New England. From the 1820s to the 1850s, Henry Clay (Whig-Kentucky) and other congressional leaders worked out one compromise after another to defuse sectional tensions. But as the differences between the sections grew more pronounced, particularly over slavery, compromise became impossible. When the new Republican party won the Presidential election of 1860, the Southern states seceded and the nation plunged into Civil War.

Sectional identities persisted after the Civil War, notably in the Democratic party's long control of the "solid South." But the war had so drained emotions that sectional tensions never again reached their earlier levels. In the modern Congress, various caucuses continue to bring together members from the same region who seek a common agenda to promote the interests of their region.