c
spread of slavery, the Mexican-American war, manifest destiny, sectional balance, the widening

of the gap between rich and poor, the louisianna purchase, oregon territory, the missouri
compromise, and the compromise of 1850

Territorial expansion destroyed national unity due to the outstanding views on slavery, debate over
newly acquired territory, and the sectionalism of the nation.

the logical classifications for the debate over slavery would be pro and anti slavery. This is not the
case as there were many further divisions on both sides. The end result was further disunion
between the seemingly same groups. One such division was the female abolitionists, along with
abolition they believed in women's rights. These women suffered from stiff and often violent
opposition. Another example of such disunion was the difference between white and black abolition.
White abolitionists often believed that it wasn't the blacks place to fight for their own rights. The
fracture of belief in the argument for pro and anti slavery was often just as varied as internal beliefs.
The pinnacle of the issue of slavery was dubbed "bleeding Kansas" coined by Horace Greeley. By
the end of 1959, 56 people had died due to the contrasting views on slavery.
With the acquisition of territory also gave rise to the question of slavery in new lands. The South
worried about the North overtaking the South in both the Senate and House of Representatives. The
North worried about the slave state to free state ratio. Such attempts to unify were the Kansas u
Nebraska Act and the Wilmot Proviso. The Kansas u Nebraska Act allowed settlers of the land to
decide by popular decision whether to allow or deny slavery. The Wilmot Proviso claimed that no
lands acquired from Mexico would allow slavery. The topic was a powder keg ready to explode
whether it went either way.

The first real crisis over territorial expansion took place in 1819-1821 over the admission of the state
of Missouri. The proposed state of Missouri was the first (beside Louisiana itself) to be carved out of
the Louisiana Purchase. It lay out of the jurisdiction of the Northwest Ordinance, which prohibited
slavery in the Northwest Territories, and had a long tradition of slavery. Therefore, in 1817 Missouri
applied to the Union as a slave state. The extension of slavery so far north and the threat of further
expansion of slavery into all new territories of the U.S. created havoc in Congress. In February 1819,
Congressman James Tallmadge, from New York, proposed an amendment that would prohibit any
new slaves to enter the state and provided that all slave children born after the date of admission
would be set free at the age of twenty-five. Tallmadge's gradual emancipation proviso received
almost unanimous opposition from Southern Congressmen. The amendment twice passed the North
dominated House of Representatives, only to be turned down by the balanced Senate. In December
1819, Maine applied for statehood as a free state. In the end a compromise was reached where
Maine would enter the Union as a free state, Missouri would enter the Union as a slave state without
restrictions, but in the remaining Louisiana territory slavery would be prohibited north of 36o30' (the
Mason-Dixon Line). This is now known as the Missouri Compromise. The Missouri Compromise is
commonly thought of the beginning of American Sectionalism, although signs were...