What was sectionalism like in the 1850s?

Answer 1

In the days leading up to the Civil W President Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying " A house divided against itself cannot stand." What did he mean by this? Clearly he was saying that the United States of America had to remain just that, united. In order to continue to exist as a nation we had to truly be unified. What Lincoln was reacting to were the many conflicts that were dividing this great nation. We call these divisions sectionalism. Sectionalism was the feeling of loyalty to a section or area, rather than to a whole. This means that people in the U.S. back then felt more loyalty to the South or the North, rather than to a nation as a whole.