I really enjoyed your post. The majority Americans were in support of expansion, but the problems were really over the representation of the newly acquired territories. American nationalism gave rise to Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was the belief that God wanted them to expand America. Manifest Destiny caused people to move towards the west, which raised the issue of new states. These new states would have to either allow slavery or not, so sectionalism began to pit the North and South against each other. The south wanted to annex new states to the Union and spread slavery to them in order to gain a pro-slavery advantage in Congress. They could then ensure that the practice of slavery was carried on. The north, just the opposite, wanted
