The country's eyes looked west as farming and industry took over. More land was needed because of overpopulated factory towns and the South's prosperous agriculture. "More than four million slaves lived in the South, comprising about a third of the region's population, and forming the backbone of its economy" (The American Civil War,592). The profits of the South's biggest commodities, cotton and rice, vastly depended on cheap labor because of the long hours of work in the fields, and the many months of planting, cultivation, and harvesting. The Texas War of Independence from Mexico triggered anger between the Unites States and Mexico, and border disputes arose. The United States claimed the Rio Grande as the border, and Mexico claimed it was the Nueces River. Also, the border between the US and

While most leading United States religious denominations tried to steer clear of the slavery controversy, some clergymen did speak out against slavery. Rabbi David Einhorn, who migrated from Austria in 1855, cited the Bible in his sermons opposing slavery from his pulpit at Har Sinai Temple in Baltimore. The chains on Africans, he insisted, threatened liberty for all. By 1861 his daring stand forced him to flee Maryland, a slave state, for the North. Many other immigrants who had originally supported the Democratic Party and its "age of the common man" campaign, began to desert when the Party had come under the control of slaveholders. In 1851, a "Swedish American Republican Club of Illinois" was started and the next year the "Democratic Society of Polish Refugees" began by organizing a plan for Poland's independence from Russia, but it ended up denouncing slavery.

Southern support of slavery and Northern opposition collided more violently than ever before over the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. Dred Scott was a slave from Missouri who claimed his freedom on the basis of seven years of residence in a free state and a free territory. The decision, which was made in 1857, declared that no black, slave or free, could claim United States citizenship, and that congress could not prohibit slavery from and US territory. It was an eye-opener to Northerners who believed that slavery was tolerable as long as it stayed in the south. If the power Congress once had to regulate slavery in new territories was taken away, then slavery could quickly expand into much of the west and eventually into free states. Suddenly, many Northerners who had not previously been against slavery, realized that if they did not stop slavery now, they might not have the chance. The growing fear in the North helped further contribute to the Civil war. It was considered one of the most ill conceived decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. Charles Sumner, a republican congressman, later had strong words on the late Chief Justice Taney and his most notorious decision:

The debates between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln were held during the 1858 campaign for a United States Senate seat from Illinois. Lincoln was relatively unknown compared to Douglas who was the incumbent Senator and had chaired the Senate committees, helping enact the Compromise of 1850. In contrast to Douglas' Popular Sovereignty stance, Lincoln stated that the US could not survive as half free and half slave. He accused the Democrats of trying to spread slavery into the territories and free states, and in return Douglas accused the Republicans of promoting war of sections. Although Lincoln would lose the Senate race, he would win the presidency in 1860. The Election served as the final signal to many Southerners that their position in the Union was hopeless. Within a few weeks of Lincoln's victory the process of Southern states began and would lead to the prolonged Civil war between Americans. American minorities, "played a crucial role on the Election of Abraham Lincoln.... Republican Party officials carefully courted immigrant voters" (A History,11). The Confederate States of America, formed 1861, was a republic composed of eleven southern states who seceded. With Jefferson Davis as president, they sought a peaceful separation, but the North refused to let them secede quietly. The war started at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12,1861. Davis's offensive and defensive strategies sustained them for a while, but "Confederate armies were finally defeated by attrition, the country behind them exhausted and drained" (Reader's Companion,212). On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancip

Some common words found in the essay are:
Republican Party, Dred Scott, Slave Act, Civil War, Popular Sovereignty, Emancipation Proclamation, Battle Slavery, Kansas-Nebraska Bill, Franklin Pierce, Suddenly Northerners, fugitive slave, civil war, dred scott, compromise 1850, north south, popular sovereignty, fugitive slave act, slave act, abraham lincoln, fugitive slave law, major issue, republican party, prohibit slavery territory,
Approximate Word count = 2520
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)