Peyton CampbellMrs. PatrickApril 10, 2014Period 4A Nation DividedKnown as the Second War for Independence, the Civil War was the most devastating conflict in American history, causing more than 600,000 brutal and horrific deaths. In 1861, eleven Southern states formed the Confederate States of America and seceded from the Union due to the growing problem of slavery and the way the government was run. Compatriots from all over the world fought for four years for their freedom and rights. The controversy over slavery did not end and instead spread across the country. Social and political conflicts were the main causes of the civil war. Social issues gave the North and South a different perspective on slavery, making it a major cause of the Civil War. Originally intended as a plan to satisfy the nation by equalizing the number of free and slave states, the Compromise of 1850 was a series of five bills that exacerbated the issue of land slavery. Senator Daniel Webster, a supporter of Clay's idea, said: “There can be no peaceful secession. » (Webster, 1850). Clay's proposal attempted to resolve the social problem of slavery by accepting California into the union as a free state and leaving popular sovereignty to decide whether slavery should be permitted in New Mexico and Utah. However, the Compromise of 1850 led to more social conflict in the country. The North did not want slavery to expand to the West, while the South felt that compromise was unnecessary and that they should not have to debate land and slavery. This caused major chaos as both sides fought to claim the land as their own. Additionally, the Fugitive Slave Act was one of five compromise bills that further increased sectionalism on the ISS...... middle of paper ...... slavery leading to the civil war. Social and political events contributed to the problems of slavery, increasing sectionalism and leading to the horrific deaths of average citizens in the bloody Civil War. Continual social compromises were added to try to reduce problems between each region, but they ended up causing more chaos and conflict. Political debates and speeches gave each side a voice during the war and attempted to convince people to think the same way as their leaders. Although events such as the Compromise of 1850 and the Lincoln-Douglas debates sparked the nation's largest war, the war's outcome gave everyone new hope. New laws were passed and old ones revised, establishing equal rights and a sense of nationalism. The traumatic war of the century gave birth to a new nation and a new perspective, realizing the American dream..