Why did sectionalism increase

Whig strongholds often mirrored the patterns of westward migrations out of New England. With an odd coalition of wealthy merchants, middle and upper class farmers, planters in the Upland South, and settlers in the Great Lakes, Whigs struggled to bring a cohesive message to voters during the s. Whig leaders stressed Protestant culture, federal-sponsored internal improvements, and courted the support of a variety of reform movements, including of course temperance, Nativism, and even anti-slavery, though few Whigs believed in racial equality.

These positions attracted a wide range of figures, including a young convert to politics named Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln admired Whig leader Henry Clay of Kentucky, and by the early s, Lincoln certainly fit the image of developing Whig. A veteran of the Black Hawk War, Lincoln had re-located to New Salem, Illinois, where he worked a variety of odd jobs, living a life of thrift, self-discipline, and sobriety as he educated himself in preparation for a professional life in law and politics.

The Whig Party blamed Democrats for defending slavery at the expense of the American people, but antislavery was never a core component of the Whig platform. Several abolitionists grew so disgusted with the Whigs that they formed their own party, a true antislavery party. Activists in Warsaw, New York, a small town located outside of Buffalo, went to work and organized the anti-slavery Liberty Party in Few Americans voted for the party, however, and the Democrats and Whigs continued to dominate American politics.

Democrats and Whigs fostered a moment of relative calm on the slavery debate, partially aided by gag rules prohibiting discussion of antislavery petitions. Arkansas and Michigan became the newest states admitted to the Union, with Arkansas coming in as a slave state, and Michigan coming in as a free state. Michigan gained admission through provisions established in the Northwest Ordinance, while Arkansas came in under the Missouri Compromise.

The balancing act between slavery and freedom continued. Events in Texas would shatter the balance. Independent Texas soon gained recognition from a supportive Andrew Jackson administration in Texas struggled with ongoing conflicts with Mexico and Indian raids from the powerful Comanche. The democratic presidential candidate James K. Polk sought to bridge the sectional divide by promising new lands to whites north and south. Polk cited the annexation of Texas and the Oregon Territory as campaign cornerstones.

Yet as Polk championed the acquisition of these vast new lands, northern Democrats grew annoyed by their southern colleagues, especially when it came to Texas. For many observers, the debates over Texas statehood illustrated that the federal government had at last moved in a clear pro-slavery direction.

Anti-slavery northerners were also worried about the admission of Florida, which also entered the Union as slave state in The year became a pivotal year in the memory of anti-slavery leaders. The s opened with a number of disturbing developments for anti-slavery leaders. The Supreme Court case Prigg v. A number of northern states reacted by passing new personal liberty laws in protest in The rising controversy over the status of fugitive slaves swelled partly through the influence of escaped former slaves, including Frederick Douglass Figure 2.

Born into slavery in at Talbot County, Maryland, Douglass grew up, like many enslaved people, barely having known his own mother or date of birth. And yet because of a range of unique privileges afforded him by the circumstances of his upbringing, as well as his own pluck and determination, Douglass managed to learn how to read and write. He used these skills to escape from slavery in , when he was just nineteen. By , Douglass put the finishing touches on his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

The book launched his life-long career as an advocate for the enslaved and the oppressed and helped further raise the visibility of black politics nationally.

But black activists did more than deliver speeches. They also attacked fugitive slave laws by helping thousands to escape. The incredible career of Harriet Tubman Figure 4 is one of the more dramatic examples.

But the forces of slavery had powerful allies at every level of government. The year signaled new reversals to the anti-slavery cause, and the beginnings of a dark new era in American politics. President Polk and his Democratic allies were eager to see western lands brought into the Union, and were especially anxious to see the borders of the nation extended to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Critics of the administration blasted these efforts as little more than land-grabs on behalf of the slaveholders.

Events in early seemed to justify anti-slavery complaints. Since Mexico had never recognized independent Texas, it continued to lay claim to its lands, even after the United States admitted it to the Union. In January , Polk ordered troops to Texas to enforce claims stemming from its border dispute along the Rio Grande. Whigs, like Abraham Lincoln, found their protests sidelined, but anti-slavery voices were becoming more vocal and more powerful.

After , the sectional crisis raged throughout North America. Debates swirled over whether the new lands would be slave or free. The South began defending slavery as a positive good. Another approach you can use is to skim each lesson plan to see what specific activities each offers and choose only those that suit specific course objectives and content. Each lesson plan indicates how best to streamline that lesson's content and will suggest essential versus more rigorous treatment of a given subject.

This settled the slavery controversy for the first few decades of the American republic, but this situation changed with the application of Missouri for statehood in This lesson plan will explore the wide-ranging debate over American slavery by presenting the lives of its leading opponents and defenders and the views they held about America's "peculiar institution.

Popular sovereignty allowed the settlers of a federal territory to decide the slavery question without interference from Congress. This lesson plan will examine how the Kansas—Nebraska Act of affected the political balance between free and slave states and explore how its author, Stephen Douglas, promoted its policy of popular sovereignty in an effort to avoid a national crisis over slavery in the federal territories.

This lesson plan will explore Abraham Lincoln's rise to political prominence during the debate over the future of American slavery. Skip to main content. Photo caption. What did the Election of mean for sectionalism and national politics? Examine the arguments forwarded by opponents and defenders of slavery.

Analyze the economic arguments used within the debate regarding slavery. Analyze the platforms of the political parties during the election. Curriculum Details Preparation Instructions. Most significantly, did Congress have the constitutional authority to prohibit slavery in any state or territory?

With proslavery and antislavery supporters pushing for a resolution to sectional conflict over the issue, the Court used its authority in the Dred Scott case more to render a final ruling on the Missouri Compromise rather than to decide the fate of a single man. Chief Justice Roger Taney delivered the opinion of the Court with each of the concurring and dissenting justices filing separate opinions.

In total, six justices agreed with the ruling. The Court ruled that Scott was not a citizen of the United States, that residence in a free territory did not make Scott free, and that Congress had no constitutional authority to prohibit slavery in any territory. The decision effectively overturned all of the political compromises negotiated between Northern and Southern congressional representatives over the past 30 years in a significant victory for proslavery factions.

Taney based his ruling in part on his interpretation of how the authors of the U. Constitution would have perceived Scott as a man of African descent, stating that a black individual would be perceived too inferior to be granted equal rights on the same level as a white person.

He also stated that any act of Congress denying a slaveholder his property i. This marked only the second time the Supreme Court had found an act of Congress, in this case the Missouri Compromise, to be unconstitutional. Although Chief Justice Roger Taney believed that the decision would answer the slavery question once and for all by transforming a contested political issue into a matter of settled law, it produced the opposite result.

The decision led many Democrats to start supporting the Republican Party, drawn in by their opposition to the expansion of slavery into new federal territories. In the South, the decision encouraged proslavery, secessionist elements to make bolder demands in Congress.

Many historians consider the Dred Scott decision to be one of the direct causes of Southern secession and the Civil War. The Lecompton Constitution, drafted by proslavery factions, was a state constitution proposed for the state of Kansas that rivaled the constitution proposed by the Free-Soil faction.

In , settlers in Kansas were faced with voting on a constitution that outlined a government for the territory. The Lecompton Constitution was the second of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas.

It was produced in September by the territorial legislature, which consisted mostly of slaveowners in response to the antislavery position of the Topeka Constitution drafted by the Free-Soil faction. Free-state supporters, who comprised a large majority of actual settlers, boycotted the vote.

The resulting Lecompton Constitution secured the continuation of slavery in the proposed state and protected the rights of slaveholders. Both the Topeka and Lecompton Constitutions were placed before the people of the Kansas Territory for a vote, and both votes were boycotted by supporters of the opposing faction. In the case of Lecompton, however, the constitution was defeated by several thousand votes, demonstrating that the majority of Kansas settlers did not want slavery to continue as an institution within the state.

Nevertheless, both the Lecompton and Topeka Constitutions were sent to Washington for approval. Stephen Douglas : Stephen A.

Douglas broke with the Democratic Party leadership over the Lecompton Constitution. Meanwhile, despite the controversial Dred Scott decision, Stephen Douglas and many other Northern Democrats continued their support of popular sovereignty as the final authority on the admission of slavery into new territories, while Republicans denounced any measure that would allow for the expansion of slavery.

President Buchanan, however, formally endorsed the Lecompton Constitution before Congress, joining with the Southern Democrats who demanded that the document be adopted as the Kansas state constitution. While the president received the support of the Southern Democrats, Northern Democrats and Republicans denounced the blatant violation of the will of the popular majority in Kansas.

In , in an effort to win Northern support for the popular sovereignty argument, Douglas entered into a series of debates with Abraham Lincoln who was challenging him for the Illinois congressional seat. This argument, which became known as the Freeport Doctrine, alienated many Southerners from the Northern Democrats permanently.

The Panic of was a financial crisis in the United States caused by the overexpansion of the domestic economy. The Panic of was a financial crisis in the United States caused by an overexpansion of the domestic economy following an international crisis over currency valuation in Britain.

It is considered by many to be the first worldwide financial crisis. Beginning in September , the financial downturn lasted until the Civil War. After the failure of Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, the Panic quickly spread as businesses failed and the stock market began to plummet. In particular, the railroad industry experienced financial declines and hundreds of workers were laid off, and many banks, merchants, and farmers who had seized the opportunity to take risks with their investments when the market was good experienced widespread financial loss.

In the early s, westward expansion, development, and investment had resulted in widespread economic prosperity throughout the United States. Railroads and factories began to borrow and invest with generous bank loans. However, by , the value of western land fell and migration drastically slowed.

Combined with a falling demand for American goods in Europe, commercial credit was curtailed and many merchants and investors found themselves unable to pay back their debts. Because many banks had financed railroads and the purchase of western lands, they began to feel the pressures of falling railroad securities. Numerous western railroad companies began to fail—further decreasing the value of railroad securities, stocks, and bonds. The prices of grain also decreased significantly, and farmers experienced a loss in revenue, resulting in many foreclosures on recently purchased lands.

The Panic of was set into motion with the failure of Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, which had large mortgage holdings and ties to national investment banks.

The failure of Ohio Life brought attention to the financial state of the railroad industry and land markets and brought the financial panic to the forefront of public issues.