It would be appropriate to say that “By the 1850’s the constitution, originally framed as an instrument of national unity had become a source of sectional discord and tension and ultimately contributed to the failure of the union it had created” is a valid statement. This is because virtually everyone in the nation, the public, statesmen, and presidents, felt growing tensions over the fate of territories, interpretation of the constitution, and the justification behind the southern secession in relativity to the issue of slavery. The issue of slavery became a huge controversial topic in territories once they were ready for admission into the union. This could be exemplified by the disputes over and whether or not the state of California
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It wasn’t until the presidential election of 1860 that the issue of slavery was freely debated upon between candidates. This topic was debated upon in a series of debates between the republican candidate Abraham Lincoln and the northern democratic candidate Stephen Douglas. It was from these debates that the term and use of Lincoln-Douglas Debates originated. However, it was during these debates that Abraham Lincoln ambitions to abolish slavery came to be known by all and feared by virtually all southerners. In response, the south vowed to secede from the union if Abraham Lincoln did in fact become elected to be the president of the united states. This became a reality as Abraham won the title of president, by wooing every free state, as his platform appealed to every type of citizen other than slaveholders. It was then that Jefferson Davis elected himself as the president of the Confederacy of the United States and pushed the southern states to succession. Jefferson Davis felt justified in doing so as he was an advocate for states rights when he “claimed that the government thus formed was not a compact between States, but was in effect national government, set up above and over the States” (Document H). However, even though Jefferson Davis made the succession known, Abraham Lincoln refused to recognise its legitimacy as he stated “Having never been States, either in substance, or in name, outside the union, whence this magical omnipotence of ‘States rights’, asserting a claim of power to lawfully destroy the union itself” (Document
It wasn’t until the presidential election of 1860 that the issue of slavery was freely debated upon between candidates. This topic was debated upon in a series of debates between the republican candidate Abraham Lincoln and the northern democratic candidate Stephen Douglas. It was from these debates that the term and use of Lincoln-Douglas Debates originated. However, it was during these debates that Abraham Lincoln ambitions to abolish slavery came to be known by all and feared by virtually all southerners. In response, the south vowed to secede from the union if Abraham Lincoln did in fact become elected to be the president of the united states. This became a reality as Abraham won the title of president, by wooing every free state, as his platform appealed to every type of citizen other than slaveholders. It was then that Jefferson Davis elected himself as the president of the Confederacy of the United States and pushed the southern states to succession. Jefferson Davis felt justified in doing so as he was an advocate for states rights when he “claimed that the government thus formed was not a compact between States, but was in effect national government, set up above and over the States” (Document H). However, even though Jefferson Davis made the succession known, Abraham Lincoln refused to recognise its legitimacy as he stated “Having never been States, either in substance, or in name, outside the union, whence this magical omnipotence of ‘States rights’, asserting a claim of power to lawfully destroy the union itself” (Document