Political Disputes Between 1820 And 1860 Essay

In the early nineteenth century, Americans sought to resolve their political disputes through compromise. However, by 1860 this no longer seemed possible. The cause of political and social disputes between 1820 and 1860 was the result of differences of opinion on slavery. Southerners depended on slave labor, whereas Northerners thought it was wrong to own a human. The lack of trust between the two regions resulted in increased tensions, hindering any kind of productive negotiations. Although effort was made to create agreements in order to satisfy such differences, the tensions created were too great. Irreconcilable differences between the North and South regarding slavery led to the eventual breakdown of compromise. Although people from both sides were beginning to strongly express their beliefs, about slavery, there were those who refused to believe that states should separate from the Union. Senator Henry Clay tried to keep the nation together through The Missouri Compromise of 1820. Missouri applied to the Union as a slave state after the United States gained a large stretch of land from Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase. The addition of a slave …show more content…
In Daniel Webster’s speech to the Senate in 1850, he admits that the North had not obeyed the Fugitive Slave Act. When slaves escaped into northern territory, Northerners were not returning slaves back to their owners in the South. In his speech, Daniel Webster said, “We could not separate the states by any such line if we were to draw it. We could not sit down here today and draw a line of separation that would satisfy any five men in the country.” It was impossible to make everyone happy because if the nation was divided, there would be no unity (Doc D). In the Dred Scott case, Dred Scott’s freedom was denied even though he had spent some time in a free state. Scott was basically told he was property, so he could not sue for his freedom (Doc

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