Essay On The Northwest Ordinance Of 1787

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787
During the late 1780s, many U.S. citizens were interested in purchasing land in the Ohio River Valley area. These citizens eventually got Congress to pass the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. This ordinance gave settlers basic rights and illegalized slavery in the Ohio River Valley. There were three major parts to creating new states within the ordinance. The first section stated that when a new territory began to establish, Congress would appoint a governor, a secretary, and three judges for that territory. The second section of the Northwest Ordinance only applied to territories including a population of 5,000 free adult males. It stated that once the territory met that criteria, it could elect a legislature. The final part of the Northwest Ordinance allowed territories with 60,000 free settlers to request for statehood.
The U.S. Constitution
Although the U.S. Constitution states that “all men are created equal,” during America’s early days it only applied to upper class white men. This upsets many people in the United States. When the Constitution first came into play, only the rich white men were treated right. As the years progressed, more and more whites

became accepted. But blacks still were discriminated. The founders of the Constitution were in a tight spot, and could not abolish slavery through the Constitution because southerners would not support them then. So the founding fathers figured that slavery would die out because tobacco, the plant that everyone grew, kills the soil. The founding father’s theory probably would have worked out, but after Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, cotton became king and, slavery flourished in the south. Because of this, many people blame Eli Whitney for the Civil War.

Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798
James Madison wrote the Virginia resolution and Thomas Jefferson wrote the Kentucky resolution. The purpose of these resolutions were to emphasize state’s right and end the Alien and the Sedition Acts by stating that they violated the Constitution. They also stated that states had the right to nullify laws that Congress pass. But Jefferson and Madison faced a dilemma. These resolutions were written before judicial review which states that the Supreme Court can deem a law unconstitutional. Although the resolutions brought up several valid points, no other state supported them. Because of that, the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions were ignored, and did not make any real impact on the country. But they did spread the idea of state’s rights throughout the south, and that would be the south’s reason why slavery could not be banned from their state.
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise played a major role for the slavery issue during America’s early days. It was made up of three main components. The first one involved the 36/30 line. The 36/30 line separated the northern part of the U. S. and the southern part of the U. S. The Missouri Compromise stated that any state lying north of the 36/30 line would be declared a free state. However, states south of the 36/30 line would have a choice between slave or free state. The second part stated that the new state of Maine would be a free state (since it lies north of the 36/30 line). The final section of the Missouri Compromise declared the new state of Missouri to be a slave state. Although the best deal they could come up with at the time, it did not have a big effect on America, and Civil War came anyway.

The Principle of Judicial Review
In 1803, John Marshall established one of the most important principle that applies to the Supreme Court. Today, Americans know it as Judicial Review. Judicial Review gives the Supreme Court the authority to look at a law and determine whether or not the Constitution allows it. This crucial principle came into place through the case of Marbury v. Madison. John Adams, the President before Thomas Jefferson, had appointed several judges in the final hours of his Presidency. One of the judges, William Marbury, did not make it through while Adams was in charge. So, Jefferson told James Madison, his secretary of state, to stop working on the appointments. Marbury then sued Madison stating that the Judiciary Act of 1798 gave the Supreme Court the power to review cases brought up to a Federal Official. John Marshall, the Supreme Court Chief Justice spoke for the rest of the court when he stated that the Judiciary Act of 1798 could not be allowed because the Constitution stated that Congress gave them that power. Afterwards, Marshall established Judicial Review.
John C. Calhoun’s Doctrine of Nullification
In 1828 Congress passed a law that allows taxes to be raised on iron, textiles, and other manufactured goods.

This helped manufacturers from New England, and led to a crisis known as the nullification crisis. Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina argued that states had a right to nullify this law. Many southerners were against tariff because they feared that if the federal government could do that, they could end slavery as well. They hoped to stop this by nullifying the tariff law because it would weaken the federal government. President Andrew Jackson defended the tariffs, and Congress listened to Jackson, and passed another tariff law. After that, South Carolina became fed up and threatened to secede. Eventually, the two sides came to peace and ended the

crisis.
Wilmot Proviso of 1846
Through the course of events that led up to the Wilmot Proviso, America obtained a big portion of land from Mexico. There were many debates about the slave laws that would apply to this new territory. Many northerners feared that if it became an enslaved territory that the South would gain too much power. In order to stop that from happening, David Wilmot proposed to Congress that any new territory added to America would ban slavery as a part of joining the Union. This became known as the Wilmot Proviso. The House of Representatives passed the law, but the Senate did not approve. Southerners feared that the northerners were attacking slavery by proposing this law, so tensions grew between the North and south.
Stephen Douglas’s Doctrine of Popular Sovereignty
In the 1848 election Lewis Cass, the Democratic nominee, hoped that with his new idea he would win support from the North and south. His new concept, popular sovereignty, would support the idea of states’ rights. Popular sovereignty means that the citizens of the individual territories would vote on the principles that they would like to apply to the territory rather than the elected officials making the decisions. Although Cass did not become President of the United States, another Democratic leader would become powerful and support the idea of popular sovereignty. Stephen Douglas, one of Abraham Lincoln’s largest political rivals, emphasized popular sovereignty. Before Douglas fought Lincoln, he proposed to Congress the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Everything about the Kansas-Nebraska Act revolved around popular sovereignty. It gave the Kansas and Nebraska territories the power to vote for slavery themselves. During the debates between Lincoln and Douglas, Douglas brought heavy reasoning for popular sovereignty. During one of the debates, he stated that “each state of this Union has a right to do as it pleases on the subject of slavery.” Douglas won much support from Democrats, but the Republicans invested more into Abraham Lincoln.
The Compromise of 1850
Because the North and the South disagree on most things, tension between the two began rising, so in order to resolve the tension, President Millard Fillmore supported the Compromise of 1850, a series of bills based on Henry Clay’s proposals. In order to please both the North and the south, the compromise tried to give each side a little of what they would like to see in the U. S. In order to make the North agree, the Compromise of 1850 admitted California as a free state, and slave trade would be illegal in Washington D. C. Using popular sovereignty to decide the slavery debate in the rest of the Mexican Cession and passing a new fugitive slave law were ways that the Compromise appealed to the south. The new fugitive slave law, titled the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, stated that special government officials to arrest anyone accuse of being a fugitive slave. All that had to happen for that person to be given to their supposed slave owner would be for a white witness to swear that the slave was property of a slave owner. The North looked at the Fugitive Slave Act and completely disregarded it. The Compromise began to fail, and added to the resentment between the two regions.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Harriet Beecher Stowe wanted to make a statement against the Fugitive Slave Act 1850. She wrote a novel about an enslaved man, Uncle Tom, and Simon Legree who abuses Tom. Tom eventually dies from one of his Simon’s harsh beatings. Uncle Tom’s Cabin had great impact on both the North and south. In the north, many people’s eyes were opened to slavery. Slavery became more than a political issue; slavery had become a conflict that affected every citizen of the United States of America. Meanwhile, Uncle Tom’s Cabin had negative effects on the south. Southern residents were outraged. They began accusing Uncle Tom’s Cabin of propaganda. They felt the novel did not accurately represent the treatment of slaves from the south.
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Stephen Douglas, a man politician from Illinois, believed lands to the west should develop and civilize. He wanted to see a railroad from Illinois to the pacific. In order to see that expansion would begin, he proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It added two territories to the Union. The territories were the Kansas and Nebraska territories. The two territories were protected from slavery by the Missouri Compromise, but the Kansas-Nebraska Act would give them the power to decide on their own for slavery by the doctrine of popular sovereignty. Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the North and South took different sides on it. The South supported it, for they also supported the idea of popular sovereignty. Northerners became troubled, for they feared that slavery becoming legalized in the territories would lead to the growth of slavery.
The Creation of the Republican Party
When the Whig party split, many northerners from the Whig, Democrat, and Free-Soil Parties all attracted to the new Republican Party. The main goal of the Republicans was to end slavery. The Republican Party grew to be an influential party rather quickly, and gained much support. After just months, the 1854 elections were held and 105 of the 245 candidates for the House of Representatives were Republicans. In state races, Democrats lost all but two state legislatures. John C. Fremont helped California win independence. In the election of 1856, he ran as the first Republican Presidential Candidate against the Democrat James Buchanan. Although Fremont lost the election, he won in eleven of the Nation’s sixteen freed states. The Republican Party would continue to grow and stand up to the south. Eventually, the Republicans will achieve their first President, and slavery would face a challenge like none other it had faced before.