The most significant results of the War
of 1812 were increased patriotism and nationalism among Americans. The Era of
Good Feelings was a relatively peaceful political period and witnessed an improved
economic foundation through economic nationalism and the American System. But
because of the rapid western expansion, the Americans confronted a problem of
whether to expand slavery in the new territories or not. At first, this issue was
solved by passing the Missouri Compromise in 1820, which attempted to balance
the power between free states and slave states in the Senate. Although nationalism
and the Era of Good Feelings temporarily served tension, sectionalism started
to appear due to opposing views on slavery and American system and heavily
contributed to the fallout of compromises.
During the debates on the American
System, one of the first conflicts arose between the North and the South was the
tariff issue. The Tariff of 1816, the first protective tariff by John Calhoun
and Henry Clay, was a seed to sectionalism because New Englanders oppose the higher
tariffs while Southerners supported the 1816 tariff. The Tariff of Abominations
in 1828, which increased tariff to almost 50 percent, specifically angered the Southerners
and caused protests. The Southerners asserted that it is unconstitutional for the
Congress to impose tariffs, and thus they required nullification. Henry Clay,
who was concerned about the possibility of Southern states’ secession, passed
the Compromise of 1833 to pacify the Southerners.
After those tariff controversies,
sectionalism once more emerged due to the issue of slavery. Partly due to the
influence of The Second Great Awakening, the idea of abolitionism widely spread
among the Northerners. White abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison organized
anti-slavery groups and newspapers, like Liberators
and the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet
Beecher Stowe in 1852 alarmed the Northerners and turned many into
abolitionists. Cultural divisions regarding slavery were noticeable among the Northerners
and the Southerners.
The land gained from the Mexican
War in 1848 was direct cause of the Civil War. After Americans won New Mexico
and upper California through the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the compromise of
1850 again dealt with the issue of sectional balance due to the statehood of
California and New Mexico. Since both applied for admission to the Union as
free states, Congress decided to solve out this issue by “popular sovereignty,”
which allowed residents to directly vote on the slavery issue. Also, this
compromise passed new fugitive slave act, which stated that runaway slaves must
be returned to the owners. This compromise was passed in five separate sections
to avoid much conflicts and debates. Such difficulty shows how difficult it was
to unite all opinions into one and pass a compromise.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
acted as the greatest factor of sectional tensions. Western expansion allowed
the United States to gain more land and, of course, more concerns about
spreading slavery. When Stephen Douglas suggested forming Kansas and Nebraska, the
Northerners denounced him for going against the Missouri Compromise. Though the
act was passed, it was a total failure since it provoked severe sectionalism.
Even violent actions such as the Bleeding Kansas and the caning of Senator Charles
Sumner occurred to express the anger against the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Lastly, the election of 1860 was
highly influenced by the sectionalism over slavery issue. The Republican Party was
formed after the Kansas-Nebraska Act to oppose the extension of slavery in new
territories. When a series of compromises were proposed after the election,
they were rejected by the Republicans or by Southerners as insufficient.
Attempts to make compromises were of no use. Both sides had polarized too far.
In the era 1820 to 1860, “Good Feelings”
gradually collapsed because of increasingly different interests between the
North and the South. Their economic attitudes about slaves differed, leaving a
growing gap in issues of politics and economics. Making compromises became
impossible for them as time passed, and collisions on sentiments over the
tariffs and slavery issues finally led to the republic to Civil War in 1861.
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