Analyze the Ways in Which Controversy over the Extension of Slavery into Western Territories Contributed to the Coming of the Civil War

Throughout the antebellum period during the 1840's and 1850's, the country was filled with turmoil and unrest due to the disagreement of slavery expansion to the west. These events occasionally resulted in bloodshed and violence, and they all played a part in contributing to the seemingly inevitable Civil War. These events triggered different responses and feelings towards the debate over slavery. Events such as the Mexican-American War, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott Case all contributed to secession of the South and the resulting Civil War.

The Mexican-American war resulted in an American victory which leads to new land in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The newly acquired New Mexico and California were now under controversy of what should be done regarding the issue of slavery in those states. The North supported the Wilmot Proviso, which prohibits slavery in all of the acquired regions, however the south that of this as unconstitutional because they had the right carry their "property" wherever they sought necessary. The Wilmot Proviso never ended up passing in the Senate. A leading Whig by the name of Henry Clay sought to provide for the both the North and South's wishes by developing a compromise for the issue of slavery expansion in the new states. However, Stephen Douglas was the man who finally presented the compromise in a series of bills known as the Compromise of 1850. This compromise admitted California as a slave state, gave popular sovereignty to Utah and New Mexico, abolition of slavery in the District of Colombia, and it formed a new fugitive slave law. The North and South both agreed and disagreed with different parts of the compromise and they voted accordingly. This gave rise to further unrest because it still left the country divided. The new compromise was thought of as uneasy and it did not satisfy fully either the North or the South.

Stephan Douglas organized the Nebraska territory into two separate territories, Nebraska and Kansas. Now, Douglas was left with the issue of slavery expansion in these territories. Many southern Congressmen, along with Douglas believed that these new territories should be open to many new farms and with that, construct a transcontinental railroad that would help America to fulfill Manifest Destiny. In order to make this happen, Douglas disregarded the Missouri Compromise, which prohibited slavery north of the 36˚30', and he gave popular sovereignty to these new territories so that the people could choose how they wanted to go about slavery, formally known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Many northerners did not like the fact that Douglas rendered the Missouri Compromise void and they felt that he was indirectly attempting to establish a slave state in Kansas. Pro-slavery southerners and anti-slavery northerners flooded into Kansas to try to influence the vote of popular sovereignty. They clashed in what became known as Bleeding Kansas and this bloodshed shocked the nation. The unrest leads to a creation of two different constitutions- the proslavery Lecompton Constitution and the anti-slavery Topeka Constitution. It also leads to