Mexican-American Civil War

The United States has been through many trials during its 240+ year tenure, but perhaps her darkest hour was during the Civil War, which lasted from 1861-1865. It was brother against brother, family against family, neighbor against neighbor. This war had to turn every single person in this country against each other. However, one must examine the events that lead to the southern states to seceded from the Union and ultimately lead to the bloody conflict we all know today to be the American Civil War. Firstly, let’s start with one of the obvious factors of starting the Civil war; Slavery. The issue that led to the disturbance of the union was the debate over the future of slavery. That squabble would lead to secession, and secession would …show more content…
With the end of the war and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, America had obtained western territories. However, this presented a problem: as these new grounds would be welcomed as states, would they be free states or slave states? To work around this, Congress passed the Compromise of 1850 which essentially made California free and allowed the people to pick in Utah and New Mexico. This ability of a state to decide whether it would permit slavery was called popular …show more content…
Several constitutions were press forward by the territory to make this verdict. In 1857, the Lecompton Constitution was created permitting for Kansas to be a slave state. Pro-slavery forces supported by President James Buchanan struggled to thrust the Constitution through the United States Congress for approval. However, there was enough hostility that in 1858 it was sent back to Kansas for another vote. Even though it postponed statehood, Kansas voters rejected the Constitution and Kansas became a free state. This infuriated pro-slavery southerners and only made the civil war