By the 1850s the Constitution DBQ essays

By the 1850s the Constitution DBQ essays Assignment: By the 1850s 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. Assess the validity of this statement. The Constitution continued to bring national unity until the 1850s, but later, a series of resolutions raised a great confusion about the view of the Constitution concerning slavery. At this time, the law encouraged a growing split between the North and the South. The Compromise of 1850 seemed to satisfy the States, while it declared California a free State, gave a reasonable amount of money to Kansas, and allowed slave States to keep their slaves from deserting onto free States. (Doc. A) After a while, the number of fugitive slaves increased and it called for a new law. The Fugitive State Law led to a storm of opposition including the passage of personal liberty laws which were designed to hamper its enforcement. (Doc. B, D, F) The fugitive slave law turned out to be a major blunter on the part of the south while it awakened in the north a spirit of antagonism. To them this was a statute, which enacted the crime of kidnapping and it ordained disunion. (Doc. C, D) In 1853 the purchase from Mexico for $10 million gave south an advantage in the debate over the route for a transcontinental railroad, which was finally approved to pass by the organized territories of Kansas and Nebraska. But the question of slavery had yet to be answered in the Kansas-Nebraska territory. Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed that this issue be decided by popular sovereignty (but this violated the Missouri compromise of 1820). Kansas residents moved to free Nebraska and Nebraska residents moved to slave holding Kansas, but the transaction was followed by hostilities in many cases. Religious whites came in to fight and protest against slavery, cau ...