Colby Wyatt

January 16, 2015

Sectional Compromise DBQ
In the early nineteenth century, Americans were able to resolve disputes through
compromise, but eventually compromises wouldnt be enough. The compromises that
Americans had set up to unify the country and satisfy both the North and South had helped play
a role in tearing the union apart. These political disputes could no longer be resolved by
compromise because of the issue of slavery, the idea of secession, and the views that the North
and South had of each other.
To begin, slavery was one of the biggest issues tearing the union apart because of the
abolitionist movement. A good amount of Northerners had been enlightened by the Second
Great Awakening to speak out against the evils of slavery, and Southerners, those who owned
slaves, wholeheartedly disagreed with an end to slavery. The issue began with the Missouri
Compromise, when it was proclaimed that slavery was not allowed above the 3630 Parallel.
The Compromise of 1850 scrapped that idea when it declared popular sovereignty in Kansas
and Nebraska, which brought the Northern abolitionists to fight harder for a stop to slavery. It is
seen in Document B that the American Anti-Slavery Society, one of the forefront leaders of
abolitionism, believed that every American citizen who retains a human being in involuntary
bondange as his property is a man stealer. This idea of man stealing did not occur to
slaveowners in the South and this caused tensions within the union. In Document C, the
Pinckney Committee resolves that any document relating to the abolition of slavery shall be laid
on the table and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon. The Committee's
decision to not address the issue of slavery in 1836 just created more problems, instead of
solving them as the committee had hoped. The longer they put off the issue of slavery, the more
the issue built up and the tension it created between the North and South only increased.
Document G is Abraham Lincoln addressing slavery from the view of a Northern politician,

practically stating that some politicians use their view of slavery to seek office, and that they
dont use their own view of slavery, they utilize the view that the people want the politician to
have. This creates problems because if politicians arent thinking for themselves when it comes
to slavery, in the end the resolve not be the result anyone anticipates.
Next, the idea of secession created by South Carolina in the early 1830s created
tension within the union. When South Carolina had threatened to secede after the Tariff of 1828,
it implemented the idea in all Americans that at anytime a state, most likely in the South, could
declare its independence from the union and cause disruption. This fear had been used by
South Carolina to impact the execution of laws within the government, and could impact the
government again if the issue of secession would arise again. Henry Clay addresses in
Document A how he believed South Carolina had never desired for a moment to become a
separate and independent state and that they only threatened secession to experiment whether
or not it would affect the governments decision-making. This proclamation that Clay made in
1833 could have angered southerners, as he had shot down the idea of South Carolinas
secession, and could have tempted them to threaten it once again down the road. Senator
Websters speech in Document D states how ridiculous the idea of secession would be. If states
were to declare secession, with the union being intact prior to that, we could not sit down here
today and draw a line of separation that would satisfy any five men in the country. Secession
would only create havoc with borders and separating the union and the seceded states would
be a moral impossibility because of the proximity. Southern states would be inclined to secede
when they felt they didnt fit in with the union anymore, which in Document F is stated by the
Herald in Muscogee, Georgia. They view the North states as devoid of society fitted for wellbred southern gentlemen. The idea of secession can be influenced by the view of the opposing
part of the union, which was seen in Document F.
To continue, the opposing views of the sections of the union create tension that cannot
be resolved by compromise. As explained in Document F, some southerners condescended on

northerners and thought themselves part of a much higher society. If they think they are better
than the other, they wouldnt believe they have any reason to stay a part of the union. The
illustration in Document E was made to show the difference of the North and South, how the
South argues for its rights and wants to fight to get what it wants, while it has the North pinned
to ground as it tries to create another compromise that wont work and try to work through the
arguments. This difference in sections inclines the South to take desperate measures, such as
threaten to secede. In Documents A and D, a Northerner scoffs at the idea of secession that the
South has proposed, as to condescend on the South and to say that they are incapable of
seceded as the superior North wouldnt allow it.
To counter, the compromises that had been created to keep the union intact, the
Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, had worked to a certain extent and could
be models for another compromise. After all the political disputes between North and South, a
compromise in 1860 could be possible, but the extent of things needed to compromise would be
incredibly difficult to attain. A compromise could never truly solve the problems within the union,
just delay them until something occured to make them arise again, which is why a compromise
is 1860 no longer seemed possible. This incapability of creating a compromise would ultimately
lead to secession and the Civil War, the only way the South felt it could solve the problems they
had dealt with for the past 40 years.
In conclusion. some issues between the North and South were too difficult to try to
compromise, and would leave neither side satisfied. The snowball effect of the issues that
America had faced from 1820 onward, and the addition of new problems such as the uprising of
abolition made it impossible for a compromise to resolve them.