The Ethicalness of Slavery and the Partisan Battles in America’s Politics

Luke Hameloth

Mr. Burns

AP U.S. History

12/8/17

During a time of internal strife on the ethicalness of slavery and the partisan battles in America’s politics, America had entered into a controversial war with Mexico over land disputes. Many people were in favor of this war, while others were not. People in the North, specifically the New England area, were against the war as they saw it as a needlessly bloody war that would bring bloodshed and be a waste of money. The South and West on the other hand, were generally for the war as they saw it as a way to expand slave-owning territory and to avoid being outnumbered by the North.

The New England area had a very low opinion on the Mexican-American war. To them, there was no real need to go into war, as they had nothing to gain from it. They saw the war as something that would just bring about needless bloodshed and result in many casualties. Another reason for their timidity with entering the war was they saw it as a waste of money. As they didn’t see any benefit from the war, the only thing they could see was a monetary loss.

The South and West held almost the opposite opinion to New England. To them, they had so much to gain from this war. They saw the opportunity to expand their salve-owning territories, which was something they were vastly afraid of losing. They also saw it as a way to obtain more land to build their population to contest with the North’s population, which was larger at the time.