Can The United States Justify The Civil War :: essays research papers

Can the United States Justify the Civil War The definition of Manifest Destiny reads as: "The belief in the 1840's in the inevitable territorial expansion of the United States, especially as advocated by southern slaveholders who wished to extend slavery into new territories." This explanation was transcribed from the World Book Encyclopedia's dictionary. It is directly evident that from this unbiased statement we can trace the first uprising of a separate group of people yearning to break the newly formed bond of the great United States. Before and during the Mexican War, the people who were pushing for the claimed land once owned by innocent native americans, were always looking for a scapegoat. They needed one way or another, a way to squirm out of taking the blame for the enslaved and murdered Mexican causalities. There was one man, though, who would not let this happen, David Wilmot. David Wilmot was a democrat from Pennsylvania, who was willing to revise the President's bill. In this revision, Wilmot proposed "...neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of the territory...". This was not well liked by the South and eventhough it was given thumbs up many times in the senate, our newly formed country was now bordered by fresh land. The Wilmot Proviso underwent quite a bit of pressure so that compromises could satisfy each side. The Compromise of 1850 was soon to follow but the real catch of the same year was the Fugitive Slave Act. This act was invented so that the slaves of slaveowners, who took them to a slave-free state on a vacation or something, could not escape. In this act, the hardest part to understand, was that the courts were to try to give a fair trial to any runaway slaves. This enfuriated many of the Northern abolitionists who now were going to expand the tracks of the underground railroad to help extend their efforts in the rescue of the runaways. The point of no return, where many people knew for sure that the country would be devided between the north and the south was the ruling on the Kansas Nebraska Act. This act was majorly contributed into by Stephen A. Douglas and probably would never have passed without his consent. The whole idea behind the act that really got to the south was Popular Sovereignty. This so called "specific" rule was none to specific in stating when a territory could decide when they were pro or anti slavverry. The abolitionists were flooding the new territory with their own kind where as the southerners were just moving