Additionally, even with attempts to unite the nation, the South continues to lag behind the rest of the country, demonstrating the inevitability of a division between the two regions. Some think that the Civil War could have been prevented if a better compromise was met, but this viewpoint disregards the many attempts by the North as well as the South to compromise. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had established the 36˚ 30' line as the border between the slave and free states; this compromise satisfied both sides for a while but eventually became too restrictive for the South. The Compromise of 1850 also sought to end the slavery debate after the Mexican-American War, and the Wilmot Proviso raised the question of slavery in the West, but in the end these resolutions were also deemed unsatisfactory. While slavery was clearly the central point of conflict that caused the Civil War, it was part of a larger issue regarding state power versus federal authority. The inevitability of the War was clearly demonstrated through many failed compromises and growing tensions that began long before the disagreement over slavery. The Civil War was a matter of preserving the union and American identity, a crossroad that the nation would have been unable to