Civil War Apush

During some time, it was obvious that the United States was unclear, confused, and constantly arguing about the spread and extension of slavery into western territories. In fact, all this talk about slavery and its components eventually lead up to 4 bloody and gruesome years of the Civil War during 1861 up to 1865, a war that couldn't have been prevented by much, despite certain efforts, events, or acts that were previously passed. Many of these situations did result in different outcomes, but in they end, contributing factors such as the Wilmot Proviso (1846-1848), the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), and the Freeport Doctrine (1858), eventually contributed to the battle between the Union (Northern states) and the Confederacy (Western states.)

The Wilmot Proviso (1846-1848) was a two-year plan created originally by James K. Polk, who at the time was president, to completely reduce and eliminate slavery from certain pieces of land after the Mexican War against the United States. Despite the fact that certain individuals assumed that Polk’s intents on this plan was used in order for “the power of slavery [to aim] to govern the country, its constitution and laws,” others, such as David Wilmot, took it upon himself to put this plan into action and ban slavery. Being such a bold move, a ton of proslavery northern people decided to switch sides to the South and continue to working on keeping slavery’s term alive in the United States. Not only was this a major cause that contributed into the bigger dispute that was to come between the Union and the Confederacy on topic of slavery, but that just came to show that the Confederacy was, at the time, growing stronger and tougher.

Just a short two years later, the Compromise of 1850 was put into action. Although, this was a huge attempt to finally solve the arguments between slavery in the Western territories, following with a series of five separate bills. As part of those five bills, a portion of this compromise included a Fugitive Slave Act that provided the South’s slave owners support in continuously capturing and enslaving runaway slaves. In fact, this was meant for the South to feel a bit more content and in agreement with the entire situation. Also attempting to pleasure the North, the compromise agreed to allowing California to be considered a free state and solve a dispute between New Mexico(indecisive about being a slave state) and Texas(slave state,) which would abolish the slave trade, but not the problem of slavery itself. Despite the few successes, when it came to New Mexico and the Utah territory, they were still unsure about becoming a free state or not. The decision, of course, was up to them, but the suspense was serious for the Union and Confederacy in regards to the outcome.

Following Mexico and the Utah territory being unsure, Kansas and Nebraska also had mutual feelings about their stand on slavery, but their decision was also based off of what they wanted, which lead the Kansas-Nebraska Act into a whirlwind of disasters. From skeptical Democrats joining several abolitionists to them forming a new Republic Party that completely opposed slavery, they all believed that the act’s true intents were all false and actually meant as a “part of a great scheme for extending and perpetuating supremacy of