Coming of the Civil War

1. Coming of the Civil War

2. The Extension of Slavery • Westward Expansion strengthened the nation. It also caused problems. • The most serious problem was the extension of slavery.

3. Slave and Free States • In 1819, the nation consisted of 11 "slave states," which permitted slavery, and 11 "free states," which prohibited slavery. • Missouri had been seeking admission as a slave state since 1817. • Northerners had reacted strongly. Adding another slave state would upset the balance in the Senate (where each state had two votes).

4. Slave and Free States • Adding two more senators from a slave state would make the South more powerful than the North. • In 1819, Representative James Tallmadge of New York proposed that Missouri be admitted as a slave state. Once it was admitted, no more slaves could be brought into the state. • The bill passed in the House of Representatives, but it failed in the Senate. • Southern senators feared that slavery itself-and thus the South's economic well-being- was being threatened.

5. The Wilmot Proviso • The Missouri Compromise did not apply to the huge territory gained from Mexico in 1848. • Would this territory be organized as states that allowed slavery? • The issue was vital to northerners who wanted to stop slavery from spreading. • Fearing that the South would gains too much power, in 1846 Representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania proposed that Congress ban slavery in all territory that might become part of the United States as a result of the Mexican-American War.

6. The Wilmot Proviso • This proposal was called the Wilmot Proviso. • The provision was passed in the House of Representatives, but if failed in the Senate. • Although the Wilmot Proviso never became law, it aroused great concern in the South. • Many supporters of slavery viewed it as an attack on slavery by the North.