The Coming of the War

Topic:
Student’s name:
Institution:
Due date:
The coming of the war
The beginning of the evolution of the republic move from a union of states to a more unified nation can be traced between 1815 and 1820 when the United States acquired two new pieces of territories (the north and the south). The slavery was the main issue that was causing great divisions among people. While the northern territory wanted slavery to be abolished, the Southern territory defended slavery because the practice sustained its agricultural economy. Slavery was a debated moral, social, and economic issue that divided people between the south and north. In 1820, the Missouri compromise was formed as the first legislative concession to settle the issue of slavery by creating a dividing line between free and slave territories (Bolton 24). As a result, Free states were majorly from the industrializing north while the Slave states were from the agricultural south. Northern abolitionists created tensions between the south and north through protests and petitions. The new western territories were entering into the union, which also caused eruptions of conflicts. Between 1820 and 1850, the congress formed several compromises as ways of settling these disputes, and by 1861 such compromises failed to hold the Union together.
Both the south and north territories claimed different political ideologies. People of the north promoted equality and liberty for all while people of the south advocated individual rights against federal government, promoted freedoms of individuals in an agricultural society, and promoted the rights of sovereign states as stated in the constitution (Stewart 164). There were also differences in economy and culture between the south and north. The north was an urban and industrialized economy, and its people supported efforts of the federal government to develop economy and promote equality and life of the nation. The south was a rural and agrarian economy and consequently heavily depended on slave labor, but had a strong suspicion of the efforts of the federal government.
Northerners thought that people from the south would realize the negative impacts of slavery and abolish it voluntarily. Southerners considered that an agricultural coalition uniting the west and south could impede the northern trade interests from running the nation. The market revolution in 1830s tied the northern farms and industries to a strong unified commercialized north (Bolton 29). Northerners promoted free labor, individual opportunity and free-market capitalism that were against barbarism, laziness and slavery of the south.
Two-party systems (democrats and republicans) developed and tried to address sectional differences not to become a focus of politics, and were successful when U.S acquired new territories...