Analysis About Why Americans Could Not Compromise on Political Disputes by 1860

In the early nineteenth century, Americans sought to resolve their political disputes through compromise, yet by 1860 this no longer seemed possible. Analyze the reason for this change.

Even before the nineteenth century, slavery was a controversial issue. It was so controversial in fact that politicians sought to suppressed the subject altogether hoping that it would just fade away, but as suppressed subjects tend to do, slavery became an even more of an impertinence, increasing in the Southern economy. Though efforts to save the union were ever present, they were out weighed by the sectionalist sentiments brought upon by divisions among societies in the North and South, societal reforms in the North, involving the North in runaway slave issues, the idea of nullification, political differences, and the increased population and influx of antislavery immigrants in the North, creating two extreme sectionalist viewpoints that could only be solved by war.

During the late eighteenth century and nineteenth century the United States saw a huge advancement in technology. Inventors such as Eli Whitney (cotton gin), John Deere (steel plow), and Cyrus McCormick (mechanical reaper) created inventions that would revolutionize the way the Southern and Northern ways of life. Because cotton could be sorted so easily with a cotton gin, cotton production heightened, also heightening the demand for slaves. Many people at this time hoped that slavery would soon die out with the Industrial Revolution, but after the escalation of cotton production, they realized that slavery would not die easily. Also, this dependence of technology helped to industrialize the North, creating a society completely independent of slaves, and making it more difficult for Northerners to understand slavery.

Also during the nineteenth century, the North was experiencing monumental changes in society (Doc G). People were unsatisfied with the ways society was run, and they started being advocates for their beliefs. Institutions were built for mental patients and schools for the disabled and the general public. Because of the popular ideal of equality and fairness, Northern citizens began organizing unions and strikes, giving them the idea that if they could reform their own societies, then they could reform the South's "peculiar institution" as well. Thus, The Liberator and the American Antislavery Society were formed in 1830s (Doc B). The Liberty Party, which called for the abolition of slavery, formed in 1840, and in 1847, The North Star, an antislavery journal, began publication. Some Northerners, such as David Walker and Henry Garnet, even went so far as to encourage slaves to rise up among themselves.

Politically, the slavery issues were generally "tabled" and set aside for further discussion (Doc C). But the issue was heightened with the passing of the Fugitive Slave Law. The law provided that the North would have to return runaway slaves to owners in the South. The North, of course, disliked the law because of their extreme dislike for slavery in the first