Many people believe that the restoration of the Union was the cause of the Civil War, but the issue of slavery was what actually led the Union and Confederacy into War. Territorial expansion as a result of Manifest Destiny moved slavery to the center stage of American politics. The Missouri Controversy raised the issue of the westward expansion of slavery. The acquisition of Mexican territories expanded the debate on the expansion of slavery and eventually disbanded the strongest bond at the time for unity in the Union which was the two party system. The Dred Scott decision also led to the Civil War because the Supreme Court’s ruling invalidated the Republican platform of restricting slavery’s expansion and the popular sovereignty doctrine.
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Under the Missouri Compromise all remaining territory within the Louisiana Purchase north of latitude 36°30’would prohibit slavery. “The Missouri controversy raised for the first time what would prove to be a fatal issue-the westward expansion of slavery.” (Foner 2013, 358). The Missouri Compromise would later be repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska Territory. As a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, people in the North began to view Congress as allowing the South to have a greater influence in Washington. The North felt that having more slave states directly meant that there would be “more southern congressmen and electoral votes” (Foner 2013, 358) and they resented it. The Northerners would hold this resentment for a long period of time and it would lead the North and the South to the Civil …show more content…
Initially during Reconstruction there was an effort to improve the areas of: land, voting, education, labor, and the legal system. These efforts would be considered failures because later on Southerner whites would attempt to limit African American’s civil rights and liberties through the use of violence and the passing of laws such as the Black Codes. Radical Republicans in the North initially attempted to protect the rights of all Americans, but these efforts would also be overturned by the disagreement that existed within the Republican Party and the violent societies that
Under the Missouri Compromise all remaining territory within the Louisiana Purchase north of latitude 36°30’would prohibit slavery. “The Missouri controversy raised for the first time what would prove to be a fatal issue-the westward expansion of slavery.” (Foner 2013, 358). The Missouri Compromise would later be repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska Territory. As a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, people in the North began to view Congress as allowing the South to have a greater influence in Washington. The North felt that having more slave states directly meant that there would be “more southern congressmen and electoral votes” (Foner 2013, 358) and they resented it. The Northerners would hold this resentment for a long period of time and it would lead the North and the South to the Civil …show more content…
Initially during Reconstruction there was an effort to improve the areas of: land, voting, education, labor, and the legal system. These efforts would be considered failures because later on Southerner whites would attempt to limit African American’s civil rights and liberties through the use of violence and the passing of laws such as the Black Codes. Radical Republicans in the North initially attempted to protect the rights of all Americans, but these efforts would also be overturned by the disagreement that existed within the Republican Party and the violent societies that