The Constitution certainly contributed to the failure of the union it created. The document was originally formed with the intention of unifying the newly formed United States of America. Since then, the Constitution was effective in protecting the rights and ideals of the people. But by 1850, the Constitution had become a point of sectional disunity and had influenced a split both politically and ideologically between the North and the South. The writers of this document can in part be held responsible for the tension it caused. Although the Constitution was very effective in its early years, the writers had made the mistake of leaving several important issues open and unresolved, causing the eventual disunity over these issues. The Constitution ultimately contributed to the failure of the union because of the issues that were not resolved, and therefore caused controversy in the years leading up to the Civil War.…
Howard Zinn states that the Constitution only addresses how slaves were to be counted in terms of population, and did not fully settle the idea of slavery. As a result of their avoidance of addressing slavery, it became one of the main issues that led to the civil war. Over the years slavery was a topic of controversy in the North and the South. In fact, the Founding Fathers did not want a balance, except one which kept things as they were, a balance among the dominant forces at that time.…
By the 1850’s the Constitution, originally viewed as a document for national unity, had become a source of regional disagreements and tension that eventually resulted in the failure of the Union. The Constitution never outright mentions slavery, and created an unsolved problem that later resulted in compromises and the failure of the Union it formed.…
The old constitution contained flaws that the new constitution filled in. In 1861 slavery was a hard issue to address because the South relies on them so heavily. The southerners could not accept the abolishment of slavery since their mindset was still that the negroes were inferior to white. South was against abolishment of slavery and the North was for abolishment of slavery. When Thomas Jefferson wrote “All men are created equal” even he, himself owned hundreds of slaves. Even though he knew it was wrong to have slaves he ignored that fact and slavery remained. 1861 the President Lincoln’s Inaugural and the Cornerstone speech, was seen by the majority of religious white that believed that the South was in the wrong. Both of these documents were the items needed to make peace throughout the…
When the Constitution was drafted, the men who drafted it were very particular in the way they approached the issue of slavery in our country. They carefully avoided it by only mentioning it or referring to it indirectly. They did not use the term "slave" but referred to everyone as "persons". It is rather ironic that neither the Constitution nor the Declaration of Independence, the two documents most known for establishing and declaring freedom and equality for men, never even mention slaves or slavery in a direct way. The founding fathers drafted the Constitution with the approach that the goal was to unite the nation. That is why they neither put an end to slavery nor condoned it in the Constitution. Some of them owned slaves. That along with the fact that they were trying to set up a national government with unity as a goal gave them the idea that if provisions to end slavery were to be made at that time, the southern states would not follow with ratifying the Constitution. Ultimately the framers tip toed through the issue and tried to advocate equality while avoiding the topic of slavery.…
The Constitution can be interpreted in many different ways, which leads to sectional discord and tension. For many reasons, the South did not like what the constitution said. There were many conflictions with the compromise of 1850, map shown in (Document A) and the fugitive slave act. Certain Northerners were against slavery and the fugitive slave act that they even posted warnings for the slaves. (Document C). This fugitive slave act also helped drive the tension deeper into the United States.…
The Civil War was an extremely messy and complicated event in American History. While there are several factors that led to the Southern states to secede from the Union, it is historically impossible to pinpoint the last bullet fired. Moreover, in academia there is a barrage of opinions on what was the deciding factor for the Civil War; one thing it is evident is that there was animosity between both sides since the inception of the United States. Additionally, one has to examine the proposed amendments to the Constitution before the Civil War to notice that the jargon used never used the word ‘slavery.’ For instance, in February 1861, Representative Thomas Corwin proposed his and amendment that barred his last name to the 36th Congress that guaranteed the seceding states that the federal government would not intervene with the particular domestic institutions; however, the word slavery was never used in the document. Stipulating that the amendment had passed, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution would have been unconstitutional, and the banning of slavery would never have occurred.…
Many, many conflicts arose from the states slavery issue. After much thought it was deceided to come up with a comprimise. "For every free state there will be a slave state". This seemed to work until Lincoln was elected in 1860 and then slavery was abolished. This played a key role in the beginning of the civel war where 600,000 people lost there lives. This is a great example of why the Constitution had failed. So the 13 amendment was formed and slavery was officially abolished.…
The delegates struggled with the issue of slavery, which contributed to the violation of equality and opportunity of African-Americans. “ Some Americans were struck by the obvious contradiction between America’s egalitarian Declaration of Independence and its support of slavery” (James O. Horton). Most northern delegates loathed the idea of slavery, therefore it created an issue between northern and southern delegates. The northern delegates were confused on why the Declaration of Independence states that every man is created equal, but African-American man aren’t even considered people. “In 1780, Pennsylvania passed legislation that provided for gradual emancipation, and four years later Connecticut and Rhode Island did the same. Thus, by the time the Constitutional Convention met in the spring of 1787, it was clear to most delegates that the nation was moving toward a regional split on the question of slavery” (Gilderlehman.org).…
The economy of America was divided by the South and the North. The South was more agricultural whereas the North was more industrial. Cotton was the crop of the South, everybody wanted it and everybody needed it. Eventually, the Cotton Gin was invented, a machine that separated the seeds from the valuable fiber and sped up production. Tobacco and indigo came later. The Constitution became supreme law of the land in 1789. Since the Bill of Rights, only 17 amendments have been added to the Constitution. The South used slaves for everything, and the North didn’t like that. That’s what eventually led to the Civil War.…
The Constitution played a major role in causing the Civil War. One of its biggest impacts on America was creating a division between the states. This dissolution between the states is largely due to varying opinions on the legality and morality of slavery. It was impossible for the nation’s founders to know all of the major issues their nation would face in the future, so the Constitution, therefore, does not address certain topics that would lead to great dispute later on in the country such as whether or not slaves should be considered people or property. The Constitution was also vague or able to be interpreted in multiple ways in some areas about that, therefore, lead to debates, some so large that states began to secede. In addition to…
After 1783, America faced many problems and issues that needed to be dealt with, and the constitution was to drawn up to solve many of these. However some do question the effectiveness of the constitution in eradicating these issues such as slavery and Federal vs State power.…
The issue of slavery was discussed in many ways. People talked about the morality of the institution (or lack thereof), the economics of slavery, and the political issues that came about because of it. No matter how it was discussed, the North and South could not agree. Northerners thought Southerners were corrupting the soul of America, and Southerners thought Northerners were hypocrites. No matter which way they looked at slavery, the North and South had two antithetical views that could not coexist in the same country.…
Before explaining how the US Constitution has contributed to the complexity of slavery, we must first understand the development of the constitution itself. The development of the constitution goes back to when the democratic government was on trial in the early makings America during 1775. The thirteen British colonies then, had challenged the form of government they live under, claiming the conditions in which they lived in has hindered their rights, life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. These thirteen colonies disabled themselves from the British Government and…
The Convention had representatives from every corner of the country, including the south, where slavery was most common. Each representative had his own special interests according to the area of the country that he represented, both politically and philosophically. Obviously, these differences of opinion caused a lot of debate during the creation of the Constitution. Compromises had to be made in order for the…