Manifest Destiny Civil War

The existence of slavery has long been viewed as the primary cause of the American Civil War. However, slavery is only a portion of the conflict that caused the Civil War. The four developments that contributed to the Civil War were the sectional dispute over the extension of slavery into the western territories, the breakdown of the political party system, the growing cultural differences in the views and lifestyles of southerners and northerners and the intensifying emotional and ideological polarization between the regions over losing their way of life and sacred republican rights at the hands of the other. Slavery was not the only issue culminating in the Civil War but is widely accepted, though superficial.

Territorial expansion in the …show more content…
“Manifest Destiny” led to more and more expansion and more territories becoming states. Every expansion that took place forced decisions on how the new territories and subsequent states should enter the union. The issue of slavery in the new territories was important as a set up basis for economics in territories and thus affected their opinions and votes on issues greatly affecting the rest of the country. Zachary Taylor won the presidential election of 1848 by avoiding the slavery question, which meant that he was going to have to face the problem while in office. California’s gold rush set off a major uproar. California’s entry into the United States, as a free state would upset the slave free state balance in the …show more content…
These issues had been boiling up until the topic of slavery brought fuel to the fire. In the compromise of 1850, amendments were made to the Fugitive Slave act, which was an agreement made by the northern and southern states, that if a slave escaped to a northern state he or she would be returned to their masters in the south. The Fugitive Slave Act now added that when a fugitive was captured, he or she was no longer was granted a jury trial and instead the decision of whether or not they were free was up to a commissioner. Obviously the commissioner is more likely to return the slave since they would receive more money that way. The “Compromise of 1850” was created by Senator John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. All three men passed away two to three years after the “Compromise of 1850” and no one took a stand to be the voice of reason in the country. Southern economy as it is agricultural became more dependent on slavery while the North more diverse economics and did not rely on slavery. The Kansas bill in 1854 declared that any state out of the Nebraska territory would enter the union with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission. The implanted Popular Sovereignty and resulted in destroying the Whigs party, planting irreconcilable divisions in the democrat party, creating two new parties, the Know-Nothings and the