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I CAN ...Illustrate how disputes over the nature of federalism fed into sectional issues and helped lead to the American Civil War.Illustrate how disputes over the nature of federalism fed into sectional issues and helped lead to the American Civil War.
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The American Civil War was fought to resolve the issues of states’ rights versus a federal union, and whether or not the nation would continue to embrace slavery.
As the country expanded, it developed into sections with distinct economic and cultural characteristics. The sections took different positions on key political issues of the day. Westward expansion escalated the debate over a key sectional issue – whether or not slavery should be extended into the new territories.
Northern entrepreneurs favored high tariffs to protect their businesses and avoid competition from foreign products. Many southerners, who imported manufactured products, wanted low tariffs to keep their costs low. They also feared that foreign countries would retaliate against American tariffs by not importing southern cotton and other products.
Northerners favored the operations of a national bank that could help finance new business ventures and facilitate commerce. Western farmers tended to be poor and distrusted banks. They objected to bank policies that made it difficult for them to obtain loans.
Westerners favored government programs to enhance internal improvements such as roads and canals. These improvements enabled more people to travel out west and made it easier to ship agricultural products east.
Southerners tended to object to the expense associated with building internal improvements. They did not see their section of the country benefiting from such programs as most of the construction took place in the North and West.
Westerners, many of whom were poor, favored the cheap sale of public lands as a way to acquire better farmland and attract more people to the west. Many northerners opposed the cheap sale of public lands. They viewed land sales as way for the federal government to generate income.
Southerners viewed slavery as vital to their agricultural way of life and favored the extension of slavery into the territories as cotton cultivation moved west. Northerners who did not rely on slaves for a workforce objected to slavery as a moral wrong and opposed its extension into the territories.
In several key instances, the sectional issues involved arguments over states’ rights (e.g., the Tariff of Abominations, the Webster-Hayne Debate of 1830, the Nullification Crisis of 1832-33). One sectional issue in particular – the extension of slavery – prompted much debate in the 1840s and 1850s (e.g., the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act). The debate over this issue culminated with the South’s exercise of the ultimate states’ right – secession.
The American Civil War was fought to resolve the issues of states’ rights versus a federal union, and whether or not the nation would continue to embrace slavery.
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