Why the compromises from 1846~1861 failed to prevent the Civil War free essay sample

The compromises from 1846 to 1861 were, by their intentions, to postpone the struggle between the north and the south temporarily but not to solve it. The foundational problems, like the the slavery itself, the differences in social structure and economic system and the expansion of slavery, were left. The increasing struggle between the abolitionists and slave owners and between the newly formed Republican Party and the Democratic Party kept putting those questions in front of the US people. The compromises themselves failed to satisfy the wants of both sides, enraged the north and frightened the south, so up to the election of Lincoln, the tension built up to a climax and finally broke out to become a civil war. A major difference between the north and the south was the legality of slavery, according to compromise of 1820 the line of 3630 north divided this country into two parts, the southern parts contained with a large amount of plantations and slave owners. In the north the increasingly flourished international trades, the developing industrialization and the urbanization pushed the process to form the market economy, but in the west, because of the allowance of slaves, most economic activities were labor intensive as well as based on agriculture, which limited the development in industries and urban areas. Up to 1860 only New Orleans could be counted as a city with 168 thousands of people in the south. Although the south produced nearly 3/4 of the worlds cotton production, the industrial products were only 10% for the whole US. Slavery, as the foundation of southern economy, further influenced the opinions about race, the politics and the laws, while the north, mostly seen the south as behindhand and as a barrier of the advancement of US economy. One of the influences was about social structure, in the south the idea of patriarchy was dominant, and as the fact that the big slave owners gained social statue and political careers at the same moment, the south was like a nobility society and slavery is their footstone of the cotton kingdom. The differences, started initially with the slavery, were finally spread to all the areas that created a huge gap between the north and the south, they were very hard to understand each other because, for an example, the north saw the southern plantation owners as violators of freedom, but the south saw the northern workers as slaves of market. A compromise could never really worked when the two sides failed to understand each other. Politically, an important question was to maintain the balance in the senate, according to the Constitution, the number of senators was depended on the population of states, so the north were trying to have more free states, like the Wilmot Proviso did, but the south were dreaming to spread slavery to more states, like the decision of popular sovereignty. The south used to be dominant in USs political history but the active movements of northern parties like Free Soil, Know Nothing and the Whig, which eventually formed the Republican Party, supported the free labor which seemed had controversy with the idea of slavery. Although the Republicans could not necessarily be abolitionists, for a balance in power ( which could be seen as a kind of compromise) or for the idea of free labor, they would put effort to stop the expansion of slavery, and whatever their attitude was, the divide was existed and threatened the whole United States. The compromises could worked politically, but to control public opinion was also very important. After the Second Great Awakening the idea of Abolitionists had risen that the problem of slavery, that it must be solved or erased from the US. Theyve tried to ship some freed slaves back to Africa but later, by the efforts of black people, these movements tended to be acknowledging the citizenships of blacks and the equality within all Americans. Some secret societies had created to help the slaves escape from the south, like the Underground Railroad which help more than 6000 slaves to escape. The slave owners protected their property by the Fugitive Slave Laws, like the one in the Compromise of 1850, with the swear of any white people, a black could be counted as a fugitive slave and be sent back to the south. The books and newspapers further pushed these struggles, like the Uncle Toms Cabin. the Liberator and An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, rises the sympathy in the north to the slaves and increasingly frightened the south. The popular sovereignty used in New Mexico territories, the compromise of 1850 and the Kansas and Nebraska Acts were Victories of the south politically, however these acts were still seemed as compromises because both the north and the south were dissatisfied with these acts, that they could only be compromises but not victories. For the south the expansion of slavery was needed because the slavery was the foundation of southern society and economy, they had enjoyed less benefits from the fast developing northern industrial economy, if, without more lands and slaves moving to the new land, the expansion of production could not be achieved while their way of living could be challenged. For the northerners the process of industrial revolution went slowly in the south and with slavery the free labor could never come true. The Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott Affair and John Brown created a sense that the movement of northern abolitionists had come to a climax, while the south itself, during the National Convention of Democratic Party, divided into two groups that one supported Douglas and popular sovereignty and the other supported John C. Breckenridge and the slavery. The conflict was now not just between the south and the north but also in both sides themselves. While the election of Lincoln created such atmosphere in the south that in the future 4 years the power of Republican Party and as well as the influence of the north would overwhelm the south by expanding their influences in the south, that, the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions and Article of Confederation gave the south an excuse that they could leave the union without changing the southern way of living. The compromises from 1846 to 1861 failed to reduce the tension because the inner differences within the north and the south, the contradiction of expansion of slavery or market economy and the moral concerns that could not only solved by political methods, together with the division of the parties and their failed efforts towards compromises. The bloody incidents, prints and public debates heated the situation and acted like catalysts. Since the opposition was seemed impossible to solve, that both sides dissatisfaction increased over time and all the efforts towards compromises were finally given up.