Slavery

Slavery is one of the most controversial issues that existed between the North and the South of the USA. The issue of slave trade posed as the main source of rivalry between the North and South America. The South strongly supported slave trade, while the North opposed the slave trade strongly. The south argued that the slaves were vital in the support of the Sothern economy, since they provided cheap labor. However, the North argued that the slaves should be set free. The two parties engaged in a series of discussions regarding slavery. The paper lays an exclusive focus on why the North and the South did not form a compromise to slavery on 1850, when they could have done it before.

One of the key reasons that made it impossible for the politicians to find a compromise is the fact that the Southerners believed that if slavery was not allowed, their lives would be doomed. The Southerners believed that the slavery was their main source of livelihood and the strength of their economy. The politicians from the South strongly blocked any attempts to make a compromise to the expansion of slavery. After the end of the Mexican war, a controversial debate on the expansion of the slave trade to the west emerged. The debate shifted the attention towards North, who were determined to end slavery, since the Southerners advocated for the expansion of slavery to the West (Hammond 12).

 

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Another factor that delayed the expansion of slavery was the fact that the politicians from the South always opposed any move by the North politicians to flush out the slave trade. For example, David had already proposed a bill that would have ended the slavery expansion as early as 1946. Unfortunately, the Southern politicians felt that their interests had been threatened. They did everything to block the bill even before it reached the senate. Such moves explain the key reasons why politicians from the South and the North were not able to make a compromise on the slave trade before the 1850 (Hamilton 23).

The Wilmot Proviso is another issue that caused a delay in the compromise against slavery expansion. In this case, the Proviso acted as a confirmation to the Southerners that the Northerners had posed a serious threat to them. The proviso irritated the Southerners, and they were continuously opposing any effort made by the North in an attempt to flush out the slavery expansion (Ramsdell 17).

The North had made attempts to stop the expansion of slavery, and this made the debate on slave expansion only worse, thus hindering attempts to make a compromise on the issue. The South argued that the North had a well-laid design that would help in abolishing expansion of slavery even to the South. This issue delayed the attempts to abolish expansion of the slave trade. The land conventions that were made at this time also caused issues between the south and the North. Debates started intensifying in the senate to a point that the South and the North almost engaged in a real fight. Such factors form clear reasons why a compromise had not been reached (Ramsdell 47).

Another factor that derailed the formation of a compromise is the election of Taylor. Taylor was a leader who ignored the issue of slavery expansion. He hoped that ignoring the issue would help a lot in avoiding controversy. He hoped that by adopting a silent approach, he will secure the support of the North and the South. Throughout his term, he never addressed the issue of slavery expansion out of fear of creating a controversy. The kind of approach that he adopted made it impossible to make any significant step towards the abolishment of slavery expansion. Taylor had failed in his role to end slavery expansion. Since he held a powerful position, and he did not lead his people towards the formation of a compromise to end slavery expansion, it was not possible to find a compromise until 1850 (Rozwenc 7).

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Failure of Taylor to commit himself to end the slavery was another issue that hindered any attempts to compromise the expansion of the slave trade. Taylor was a popular slave holder and thus he could not have supported any attempt to flush out slavery expansion. Failure of politicians to flush out the expansion of the slave trade until 1850 could be attributed by lack of commitment of political figures. The above could clearly explain the reason the issue was addressed after the death of Taylor (Rozwenc 7).

Political differences that existed between the North and the South form another major reason why slavery expansion was not stopped until 1850. The Southern politicians, such as John C came out strongly to oppose any move that would aid in ending slavery. For example, when the North worked hard to flush out expansion of the slave trade on the West, John was strongly opposing the move. John argued that any move to flush out slavery expansion to the western parts would affect the South adversely. The leaders argued that such moves affected the rights and liberty of the southerners. Such sentiments brought a lot of disagreements between the North and the South. Any move to establish a compromise to end slavery expansion was affected significantly (Ramsdell 34).

The issues that were raised by the South and the North kept on intensifying. Their differences continued to act as a stumbling block that hindered any attempts to establish a compromise that would have aided in the prevention of the slave trade. For example, when Utah and California decided to join the United States, the different opinions between the two sides intensified the situation. The South still advocated that the two states should be allowed to exist as slave states. However,, the North argued that the two states should not be incorporated as slave states (Rozwenc 17).