1987 DBQ

By the 1850’s The Constitution, originally framed as an instrument of national unity, had become a source of sectional discord and tension and ultimately contributed to the failure of the union it had created. This is all shown by the misinterpretations of the Constitution and documents that followed on many occasions and topics. The Constitution was never explained to how it was meant to be interpreted, which cause many disagreements, which ultimately started sectionalism, which is the loyalty to interests or views in one’s region of a country rather than the views or interests of the country as a whole. Sectionalism kick started the idea of sucession from the union, which started the bloodiest war on american soil, the Civil War. The misinterpretation on the views of slavery was the biggest argument as shown in multiple documents, (Document E), “To the Argument, that the word ‘slaves’ and ‘slavery’ are not to be found in the Constitution, and therefore it was never intended to give any protection or countenance to the slave system, it is sufficient to reply, that no such words are continued in the instrument, other words were used, intelligently and specifically, to meet the necessities of slavery.” This basically means that the constitution could have many interpretations on the basis that no “right” interpretation was ever stated.There were many feuds between documents following the Constitution such as the Compromise of 1850 as show in in the map of (Document A) where the country is broken into 2 parts, not unified because of slavery, along with the Fugitive Slave Law, (Document D)