Abraham Lincoln's Understanding of Union Nature - Essay Example

The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed a vote of the people to determine if slavery would be allowed or not. This caused Kansas to become a battleground with violence over pro-slavery and anti-slavery views. The Topeka Constitution was created by the legitimate government in Kansas, but the initial government that gained power by fraud continued to remain in power. Dred Scott v. Sandford, a Supreme Court ruling in 1857 ruled that slaves that lived in free territories were still slaves. It further stated Congress did not have the right to exclude slavery from the free territories. In 1860 Lincoln won the election as the first Republican president.

The events listed above were a few of the arguments about slavery and slavery in the free territories. If the United States had not expanded its borders the question of slavery might have stayed a free North and slave South longer than it did. However both the North and South felt their way of life was being overrun by the opposite position. It soon became an issue of the whole country had to have slavery or be free. The only other option was for the South to leave the Union. That did not work well either. Read More