B

y 1860, debates over territorial expansion, regional economic interests,

and demographic changes revolved around the issue of slavery. It was

the one abiding issue that consistently divided the nation along sec-

tional lines.

At the time of the election of 1860, many Americans, especially

those who lived in slaveholding states, believed that the constitutional system

no longer protected their rights and that the constitutionally elected president,

Abraham Lincoln, intended to end the republican system that had been insti-

tuted by the Framers. By Lincoln’s inauguration in March 1861, eleven Southern

states had declared their independence from the United States.

Seeking the Main Point

As you read the documents that follow, keep these broad questions in mind.

These questions will help you understand the relationship between the doc-

uments in this chapter and the historical changes that they represent. As you

reflect on these questions, determine which themes and which documents best

address them.

•   

In what ways did the economies and societies of the North and South help

shape each region’s distinct identity?

•   

In what ways were the debates over slavery in the 1850s economic argu-

ments? In what ways were they moral arguments? To what extent did these

debates divide along political party lines?

•   

How did internal migration during the 1840s and 1850s fuel sectional antag-

onism between the North and the South?

252 ChApTEr 11 | the Union Undone? | period Five 184 4 –1877 TopIC I | the Breakdown of Compromise^253

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