One area that the South believed that they were in the absolute right was the matter of slavery. Slavery was a local economic and internal matter having nothing to do with the northern states or the federal government. If another state wanted to abolish slavery, that was their right; however, it was the right of other states to keep slavery. The South was actually on a firm foundation in this matter because slavery was protected within the cherished U.S. Constitution in various articles dealing with slavery. In essence, slavery was a constitutional right. For example, the Constitution allowed the individual states to continue in the African slave trade until 1808. In other words, the most cherished of all American documents
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At issue was the balance of power within Congress. This was because with the admission of each new state, free or slave, each would have its own senators and congressmen, which affected the balance of power within Congress. The issue became a bitter struggle for power within Congress between the North and the South, and it was during the consideration of Missouri as a slave state that the two-part Missouri Compromise came into being. The compromise was that Missouri would be allowed to enter the Union as a slave state as long as another free state was also admitted to keep the balance of power in Congress. The second part was to set the future borders of the Unites States within the Louisiana Purchase establishing a free zone and a slave zone with the hopes that this would settle the issue of what states could be free or slave holding in the future. This compromise only showed that the fracture of national unity was only getting larger and wider apart. As with most compromises, neither side was truly happy with what they had to work with. The South feared that the compromise would “establish the principle that congress could make laws regarding slavery” while the North “condemned it for acquiescing in the expansion of slavery” into the newly expanding nation. Though it did keep the peace in the fragile nation for over thirty years, it was eventually overturned by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of
At issue was the balance of power within Congress. This was because with the admission of each new state, free or slave, each would have its own senators and congressmen, which affected the balance of power within Congress. The issue became a bitter struggle for power within Congress between the North and the South, and it was during the consideration of Missouri as a slave state that the two-part Missouri Compromise came into being. The compromise was that Missouri would be allowed to enter the Union as a slave state as long as another free state was also admitted to keep the balance of power in Congress. The second part was to set the future borders of the Unites States within the Louisiana Purchase establishing a free zone and a slave zone with the hopes that this would settle the issue of what states could be free or slave holding in the future. This compromise only showed that the fracture of national unity was only getting larger and wider apart. As with most compromises, neither side was truly happy with what they had to work with. The South feared that the compromise would “establish the principle that congress could make laws regarding slavery” while the North “condemned it for acquiescing in the expansion of slavery” into the newly expanding nation. Though it did keep the peace in the fragile nation for over thirty years, it was eventually overturned by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of