As the U.S expanded west, conflicts over slavery grew more bitter and Americans began to identify themselves based on their belief of slavery. The admission of new states led to arguments as to whether they would enter as a slave state or a free state. Compromises were attempted such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which ran an east to west line across the territory known as the Louisiana Purchase. It declared that all above the line would be admitted as free and all below would be slave states. Unfortunately this did not satisfy the citizens at all and was a bit controversial when Missouri was entered as a slave state despite its location north of the dividing line. The expansion was enough to destroy the sense of nationalism that was heartedly felt during the American Revolution.
As the dispute escalated and became more emotional, states such as Kansas and Nebraska felt they deserved the right to choose independently from what the federal government had proposed. They passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act which the idea of “popular sovereignty” was strongly agreed upon, the choice as to whether the state should be admitted as free or not they believed, depended solely on the citizens living there. Unfortunately this led to a great upheaval which ended in a bloody fight amongst the residents in Kansas, but fortunately yielded the Republican Party which opposed the spread of slavery and played a key role in the development of the war. The Fugitive Slave Act, which demanded that escaped slaves to Free states be forcibly returned to their owners, angered many and tilted the loyalty from federal to the more dependable state pride. This resulted in a greater spread of fervid sentiment. Territorial expansion was the internal evil that disintegrated the patriotism amongst a group of individuals once held together by a common belief, and were now finding themselves to the point of fatality due to their differences.
What started as a divine mandate turned into a burden for the United States which threatened the united, patriotic, and mighty nation it proved to be during the American Revolution. “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” said Abraham Lincoln, as the first president in the Republican Party and supporter of the admission of states as free, he understood that the conflict had escalated to a degree that marked a seemingly separation within the country. The south wanted out, it wanted slave states and the rights to maintain the slaves that made such a significant contribution to their agricultural economy, the north had begun industrializing and slaves were not a key factor in their economic gain. Such dissimilar personal interests made the two regions feud and develop a separation that grew all a result of the expansion. With the threat of the succession of the south, the civil war became long and costly. Not only was the survival of the U.S as one nation at risk, but the ideas of liberty, equality, and justice all depended on the outcome of the war.
In summation, territorial expansion, in comparison to slavery or economic greed was of a greater degree a main cause of the civil war. Expansion led to a heated debate over slavery that threatened the unity of the United States, and called into question the federal government’s power over that of the states. Had it not been for the westward territorial gain, slavery would not have been called into question as quickly and the emancipation of the slaves would have been deterred perhaps a couple of decades.
