The Issue of Expansion and the Widening of the Gulf Between North and South

The Issue of Expansion and the Widening of the Gulf Between North and South

In 1819 there were 22 states, 11 slave states and 11 anti-slave

states. This is a balance, and so there was no area of disagreement

between the north and the south. There were still many territories in

America, this was the name given to an area of land before it became a

state. This was the area which caused a great deal of disagreement

between the north and the south as it had to be decided if theses

territories were to be come free or slave states. At this time the

North had been in control of the house of representative and the south

in control of the senate. This was a problem and both needed to agree

on a law before it could be passed. The fear of expansion was great

both in the north and the south , the north as it was afraid if the

south gained political control that unconstitutional practises might

be forced upon it from those wanting to keep slavery going and the

south as it was afraid that slavery might be banned through congress.

Both north and south would do anything to stop the other gaining

control.

The decision of admitting a state in as a free or slave state, made

the dived the north and south start as it highlighted their

differences and an argument that was very important to the different

areas. The idea of expansion in new territories caused much debate.

One such event was that the government had the majority of control

over the territories , than they did over the states as there was no

state government available yet. It was assumed that congress would

decide what would happen to the territories. This became a problem as

congress bec...

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...lave states. The south did not want

slavery to end as it was afraid of the consequences. The 1854 the

north and south had such a huge gap between them politically that it

would have been hard to bridge. With each having its own political

party things had got to far to have been fixed easily. A number of

presidents who had sided too much with one section had helped drive

the sides apart. And the interest in expansion has led to the sides

being suspicious of the others intentions, this was mainly to do with

slavery. Both sides were keen to make sure that the other did not gain

control in congress by getting more states than the other. If more

communication between the north and south had been available and both

had felt more secure then the gulf between the sections could have

been closed before it had got to this stage.