Prompt: Analyze the ways in which controversy over the extension of slavery into

Western territories contributed to the coming of the Civil War. Confine your answer
to the period 1845-1861.
Developing controversy between Northerners and Southerners over the
Mexican Cession, Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act all led to the
eventual coming of the Civil War. Though there were several others, these were the
three root causes.
The Mexican Cession gained for the United States much new land. This
included California. When gold was discovered there in Sutters Mill, the land saw an
influx of settlers. It wasnt long before the area applied for statehood, altogether
bypassing the territory stage of the process. This mad Southerners very anxious and
angry because they knew that California would enter the Union as a free state,
thereby upsetting the balance of votes in the Senate. It was also during this time
that the Wilmot Proviso came about. It was a bill that stated that slavery should be
outlawed in the added territories. Though the Proviso never passed through
Congress (passed in House of Representatives but not the Senate because of the
2/3 majority vote), it still managed to do some damage. It frustrated and
antagonized the South, and some fire-eaters in Southern states threatened
secession. This is one of the major controversies that contributed to the start of the
Civil War.
Because some of the Southern states did threaten to secede, Henry Clay and
the rest of the Great Triumphirate came up with the Compromise of 1850 to keep
Southerners satisfied enough to remain in the Union. It admitted California as a free
state, let popular sovereignty decide slavery in a territory gained from the Mexican
Cession, gave Texas $10 million for surrendering claims to land in New Mexico, and
abolished the slave trade in Washington D.C.. But most importantly, it imposed a
much stricter fugitive slave law. Before this compromise, Northerners were
harboring and helping escaped slaves to stay free, with little to no consequence.
After the compromise, the North became a hunting ground for escaped slaves.
Anyone caught aiding them would be fined severely and/or jailed. As more and more
Northerners became exposed to the horrors of slavery, many more became
sympathetic to and joined the abolitionist cause. The North was furious and this
only intensified tensions with their Southern counterparts.
One of the final nails in the coffin was the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Stephen
Douglas sought federal funding to build a railroad in territory gained from the
Mexican Cession. He needed southern support for his plan to go through. So, he
proposed the addition of two new territories into the Union: Kansas and Nebraska.
Because it was assumed that Kansas would be free and Nebraska would be slave,
he thought it best that slavery in those territories be decided by popular
sovereignty. However, this made Northerners very angry because it meant that that
made the Missouri Compromise of 1820 basically null and void, as parts of both
territories were above the 36 30 line, which had been decides decades ago that it
would remain free. This led to eventual border disputes and fighting in Kansas
between pro-slavery border ruffians and anti-slavery Northerners, giving the

territory its nickname, bleeding Kansas. The Kansas-Nebraska Act became the
leading short-term cause of the Civil War, and definitely brought tensions between
the North and South to a boiling point.
To conclude, three main sources of controversy that led to the Civil War were the
Mexican Cession, Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Mexican
Cession and Wilmot Proviso antagonized the South and made them anxious about
what the North had coming for them. The Compromise of 1850 angered the North
and brought slavery as a moral issue to the forefront. Finally, the Kansas-Nebraska
Act pitted each side against each other in terms of bleeding Kansas and the voided
Missouri Compromise. Each event contributed to tensions between two sides in a
nation on the verge of war.