American History Paper

There is near consensus that the polarization of the United States, into South and northeast, which lastly lead to the American Civil War was caused by thr tot all toldydom (Hutchison, 2003). The rivalry that has taken currency on this issue is that the Southerners were fighting for the perpetuation of thrall age the Northerners had taken the moral high ground of ending it. However, the devil respective stands taken by these twain groups smacks of self-centeredness (Hutchison, 2003).First, the Southern States were using the equating of all citizen in the United States as a scapegoat to support the continuation of thralldom because their economic prosperity was dependent on bondage while their northern compatriots supported its abolition not because they did not benefit economically from it but because they never wanted the Southerners to share in those benefits emanating from slavery, that is wherefore they used the excuse of criminalizing any expansion on slavery in the territories that had been acquired from Mexico while not including their territory (North) in that abolition.Because of this discord amidst these two regions a number of compromises were brokered the most popular being the 1850 compromise. However, on that gratuity reached a time when not even the 1850 compromise could hold on, that is when the confederacy eventually broke asunder. Now that the 1850 compromise had failed to contain the South and the North territories from engaging in the debate on slavery, other solution had to be sort in order to reduce hostility between these two territories. This is how the Kansas-Nebraska bill came to being.Therefore the Kansas-Nebraska bill can be looked on as another compromise brokered after the failure of a previous compromise (1850 compromise). why the Kansas-Nebraska bill succeeded for some time where the 1850 compromise failed was because while it kind of essay to end slavery in the Southern as was being propagated by the Northerne rs the Kansas-Nebraska bill gave the Southerners a say in making that decision which they exercised by voting for the continuation of slavery in their territory which was against the wishes of the northerners (WikiAnswers, 2009).By giving the Southerners the agency to solely decide on this explosive matter of slavery, this bill declare the 1850 compromise null and void thereby watering down the advances that had been do by the 1850 compromise in ending slavery which even prexy Abraham Lincoln conceded was an evil enterprise. It should also be noted that the compromise of 1850 was reached by the representative of the Southern and Northern States while Kansas-Nebraska bill though passed by congress which is another representative assembly gave people from the respective regions the self-directed power to decide on the effective to own slave.Another important point to note about the two is that they were both premised on the need to represent imperturbable coexistence between t he two territories in a larger meat although both only succeeded in further dividing them (Hutchison, 2003). It can also be argued that by giving the two territories the power to vote separately on this issue of slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska bill made any effort at unanimity futile. That is why the Southerners found no fault in the bill while the Northerners were extremely outraged by it content.The 1850 compromise just like a number of compromises that had been struck prior to it had succeeded in maintaining a semblance of peaceful coexistence although there was inner rage which was building in each of the territories which is why eventually both territories decided enough is enough and maintenance of the office quo became untenable (Hutchison, 2003). First, the 1850 compromise was unable to address exhaustively the issue of slavery which was the explosive issue that was the subject of the discontentment from both sides.This was because it created an environment of apprehension on both territories each not sure whether their demand had been met by the compromise. For instance, the Southerners after years of being treated as second path citizen by their Northern compatriot believed that the 1850 compromised was a perpetuation of that bigotry while the Northerners who all through had been used to dictating terms to their Southern compatriots did not see a reflection of that superiority in the 1850 compromise. The Kansas-Nebraska bill on the other fleet might perplex made a mark in enhancing the equality of people from both territories.However it neither anticipated nor addressed the resistance that the Northerners would have most definitely put against any effort towards equalizing them with the southern compatriots whom they had all through considered inferior when it came to the enjoyment of rights. Being a product of canon from a representative assembly, the Kansas-Nebraska bill was a democratic instrument different the 1850 compromise that was just a product of the deliberation of a skew representation forum which is probably why it was viewed by the Southerners with suspicion.This bills also failed to the rise of pragmatism in that it failed to appreciate the fact that the Southerner would obviously vote for slavery which was increasing being viewed as an infringement of the peoples right (slaves), this is one of the reason why it did not hold water for very much longer despite the fact that it gave people from both territory a right to influence decisions at the national level.References Hutchison, E. Craig, (2003). The civil war wherefore? Compare and Contrast. Retrieved 23 July 2010 from