Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Sectionalism was nothing new

In our class today, we looked at more immediate reasons contributing to the Civil War--particularly the crises in the 1850s.  For tonight, we go back a bit further, and examine events that show the divide between the North and South was already well underway in the early 19th century. 

Choose one of the topics we read--either the Louisiana Purchase, the Hartford Convention, or Jackson's veto of the Maysville Road Bill.  Explain how this event demonstrates a sectional divide (a divide by region), and why.

14 comments:

  1. In the reading the Hartford Convention it does demonstrate a sectional divide because throughout the entire reading it talks about a bunch of proposals to make each state equal. I didn't really understand all of the readings overall but the Hartford Convention was the one that made the most sense. They are talking about how each state must tax the people and have representatives based off the number of free people, including people who are under a contract to work for so many years. However, the document never once mentions the word slave. This document basically gives the guide lines for what a state has to do however they never address the issue of slavery, which is dividing half the country. This demonstrates sectional divide because half the country applies to some laws and the other half applies to the rest of the laws.

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  2. I read about the Louisiana Purchase and this created a sectional divide because there were many details about the purchase that cause the country to split sides on what they were going to do with the land and how they were going to pay for it. The treaty had to be looked at by both houses, and they had to reach and agreement over it, which also caused a dilemma and a reason for a divide between the houses.

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  3. As I began reading about the Louisiana purchase I began to understand in depth what this seemingly "great" opportunity has really done to the land. Yes, there was new land for the United States to farm/ own but that served to create an even bigger divide among the North and the South. Both sides wanted the land for themselves, the South wanted it to be able to expand/ continue slavery, which is why they wanted the new land to become slave land. Not to mention that if the South had this land it would be used as farming land to which they could use to their advantage, also if they became populated enough it would mean more representation in congress. The North wanted this land for similar reasons, they wanted more representation and land to use, however, they also wanted to prevent slavery from expanding (since they had become humanitarians) and also wanted to remain more powerful than the South.

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  4. the Hartford convention is important part for the reason the south secedes. the souths future was primarily in the norths hands and what little power that they had was being deplete. if not for the Missouri compromise the souths lazy cruel ignorant way of life would not have been able to be sustained without the spread of slavery and the continuation of the 3/5 clause. the convention had a issue to reduce the three fifths to two which is insulting and degrading which shows that these people didn't care for the slaves or their dignity but wanted control of the senate seats and the country the north just wanted the south to not play a role in politics.

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  6. I have learned about the Louisiana purchase in my history class last year, but we didn't actually cover the event. Once the United States got the territory of Louisiana, the North and South immediately began to argue over who would be able to get this land. Obviously, the South wanted the land for to produce more crops and spread slavery, while the North just wanted more land. Although this was just one incident, it just added to the many divisions between the two sides, and this caused even more discontent between the two.

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  7. After reading about the Louisiana purchase I had a little previous knowledge but after reading the passage on it I was a little more informed. I know that This land was new and everyone wanted it at the time. This new piece of land was wanted for all sorts of reasons some wanted to expand slavery into the new state and others wanted it for farm land. This started a conflict between the north and south because they both wanted the land for some type of reason. this 15 million dollar piece of land was well worth it and Americans wanted to expand. But they both wanted the land for them selves and use it for all types of reasons.

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  8. The passage about the Hartford Convention clearly showed the that Union was already starting to divide in regional section during The War of 1812. The delegates of the Hartford convention were all from New England and they met to fight for their state's and region's rights and possibly, to secede. The states of New England originally enjoyed equal representation in Congress as some of the original 13 colonies. But as more states were added to the Union, the states of New England began to lose their voting power and found that they were not being treated fairly. They had to pay high taxes for a war that they were not benefiting from and that was being fought elsewhere. Since the major battle was occurring in New Orleans at the time of the convention, the delegates could not care less about winning the war, they simply wanted to stop the embargo and be able to trade with England again. Clearly, there delegates only cared about their own region, which began the trend of sectional divide in our nation.

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  9. The aritlcle about the hartford convention shows that the divide between south and the north was inevitable. The fact that despite the outcries by the Federalists for New England secession, moderates outnumbered them and extreme proposals were not a major focus of the debate illustrates show parties were not willing to negotiate with each other. Plus, the fact that the convention considered removing the 3/5 compromise demonstrates the extreme sectionalism between the parties

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  10. Both Louisiana purchase and Hartford convention are the factors of the division. The annexation of such a vast territory that is bigger that U.S. itself seems like a great deal. However, everything has its both sides. Different opinions from the North and the South on this new piece of land catalyst the division of these two part of the country. Each of them wants more right, profit and power over the other. The Hartford convention best examplified their fight on rights, power and benefit. The New England trying to expel the South from the union; meanwhile, the South trying to get more vote by the Three fifths compromise. They all have their own plan and neither of them want to cooperate together. This shows the inevitability of the split of The North and the South.

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  11. The Hartford Convention shows the sucede of the country. It says that EACH state has to tax people but mainly because the convention says that they were going to remove the 3/5 clause which gave to the southern states more power and they also state the requirement of a 2/3 for the admission of the new states. The two "parts" of the country then, are stating their own plans for the future but both are contradictory so it shows one more time the instability of the United States.

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  12. After reading about the Hartford Convention I can say that this event demonstrates a sectional divide in many ways. The people at the Hartford Convention met to discuss the war of 1812. They also talked about political problems going on in America and removing the 3/5 compromise. This caused separation in the country because people at the convention had different opinions which were all discussed. There were representatives from each state in New England and they all showed their differences which caused a separation.

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  13. The Louisiana purchase was a clear determinant of the sectional divide in the US. The Louisiana purchase brought great potential for the United States depending in what the land was used for. The north and south both wanting the land for themselves demonstrated the differences in general thought. The south wanted the land to expand slavery and hopefully postpone the imminent abolition of slavery in the US. The north mostly just wanted the land to keep the south from doing exactly that.

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  14. The south was always more sparsely populated than the north and they were very aware of that. Prime reason for their awareness being the different parties that dominate the north and the south. Once they realized that there was more land out there that they could just add on to their existing zone of influence they would have a more equal shot in politics.

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