Sectionalism And The Breakup Of The U.s Essay -- essays research paper

Sectionalism and the Breakup of the U.S     Throughout the early 1800s the land was split in numerous areas overmany issues. Some of the more severe clashes between differing groups resultingfrom such issues as slavery, expansion, and internal improvement. With all ofthese controversial topics to worry about along with the broad diversity in thenation, caused separation and accents throughout the country.     The most prominent of the previous topics was slavery. This was anissue in the days of the bible and continues to be an issue in the middle 1800s.The divisions in the country brought about by slavery seem to be categorizedinto two main groups, abolitionists, and slave holders. These two groups alsowere divided geographically for the most helping due to the Souths need of slavesfor cheap, and reliable man power, and the North, as it was not anagriculturally based economy and needed little in the way of unskilled laborers.It was very u naccented for the North to bash the Souths slavery because their economydid not depend upon slavery. They had no slaves, no need for slaves, and sawslavery as inhumane and unlawful. The southward, however, depended upon slavery asa basis of production, and the only way to operate large farms at the time,primarily being the large cotton plantations of the south.     Several people tried to get back the issue of slavery with compromisesand bills that set clear rules and laws to appeal to both sides. The mostprominent being the Missouri compromise. This document set the standard forslavery at the time. It also managed to further divide the country into twoopposing groups geographically separated by the 36 degree 30 minute line. Thebill clear stated that no states higher up the proposed line shall have slavery,with exception to those already in existence. This meant that all new statesbeing brought into the country from the west had a resource to have slavery if andonly if they laid below the line. Obviously, the south did not really like theidea, as it allowed the northern non-slave states to outnumber the southernslave-states in the south as far as representation in the government wasconcerned.     Another part of the slavery controversy was the moral issue and weatheror not it w... ... sides.We see the best example of this in the Maysville Road article. There was adispute over the proposed road, and weather or not it should be built withfederal official currency. The government claimed that the road was for the benefit of themail, and allowed easy passage through the mountains of Kentucky. Many peopledid not like the idea still because it represented federal money beingdistributed in unequal amounts to different states, along with non uniformbenefits. This quickly set defined boudaries between the political parties ofthe time, and started a vast amount of tension between the two parties. By theend of the dispute, th e opposed(Federalists) came out on top, and the road wasnever built, but it shows the first, strong, divergence in the populous of ournation since its conception.     All of the above examples are all representative of issues of the timewhich played a large roll in sectionalism, and the breakup of the United States.Over the long run, it is a miracle that, with the vast spectrum of people in thecountry, we have managed to stay together, through thick and thin, driven by onecommon force, "Freedom."