Sectional Crisis

Sectional Crisis

The lands ceded to the United States from the aftermath of the US Mexican war were just confrontational kindles that fueled the flames of sectional conflict. The logs in the issue were Northern and Southern politicians who failed to stop disunion in the years following. This failure was brought about by the lack of strong national parties making way for the creation of sectional parties, in conjunction with presidential elections from 1848-1860, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

The strong national parties that once were able to come to compromises over issues had been diminished and now taking their place were sectional parties that had strong opinions and views, which no one wanted to budge on. The party system started out looking to appeal to people in all sections of the country. They were able to do this through "two strong national parties, each with substantial followings in both the North and the South, [with] vested interest in resolving the crisis," whatever it may have been. There was a relationship of "give-and-take" that would not be possible in the changed environment of the mid-1850s."

When the election of 1848 rolled around the issue of slavery in states acquired after the US Mexican War was on both the North and South's mind. When Texas was admitted as a slave state the North didn't fight it too much because they had hopes of admitting Oregon, which would balance out the union again. However, a problem did arise with the idea of acquiring California and New Mexico because both these states would fall to the south of the Missouri Compromise line. The North assumed that Congress would have the decision of prohibiting slavery in these territories, so "a movement developed in Congress to do just that." With there being two sides to every situation, another idea was proposed that "squatter sovereignty" be the determiner for the issue of slavery in the newly acquired territories. With a resolution not in hand, the issue was now brought to the table of politics and the topic became the platform for the Democratic nominee Lewis Cass. The Whigs didn't want to make a firm stand on the question so they ran General Zachary Taylor. Some who felt betrayed by both parties chose to follow behind the newly emerged, Free-Soil Party. "The founding of the Free-Soil Party was the first significant effort to create a broadly based sectional party addressing itself to voters' concerns about the extension of slavery." A split began to be seen by the way the candidates were running and thus the voters started making decisions on what side of the slavery issue they stood.

Sectional harmony seemed to be within grasp after Senator Henry Clay from Kentucky proposed an answer to many concerns in which "he hoped to reduce tension by providing mutual concessions." The resolution, known as the Compromise of 1850, offered many appealing features for both sides, but the fact that one piece of the resolution was beneficial to, for example, the South, angered the North, and vice versa when something was in concession to the North. "Few politicians from either section were willing to go on record as supporting the key concessions to the other section." The Compromise was eventually passed as a series, voted on separately since neither side could come to an agreement on the entire bill. This showed that the two sides were becoming unable to agree on issues concerning the territories. Although the name foretold of a peace between both sections, in reality it brought light to the deeper issue of the growing sectionalism.

During the election of 1852 the Whig party tried to bring back the idea of "nationalistic economic policies that were the traditional hallmarks of their party." This was very difficult since people had split opinions on the issues at play during this time, such as, immigrant voting rights. Franklin Pierce won this election, running