opportunities for the spread of slavery for Southerners. The distribution of these lands increased development of this section of the United States, and it was disliked in the South for it aided the free farmer more than it aided the slaveholding plantation owner. Current Congressional legislation dealt mainly with the question of whether slavery was to be allowed or prohibited in the regions acquired from Mexico because of the Mexican War. This legislation allowed abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and admitted of California as a free state. The legislation also included the Fugitive Slave Law, which provided for the return of runaway slaves to their masters. This piece of legislation was meant to appease the Southerners.However, many free states in the Union passed personal liberty laws in an effort to help the slaves escape. After these states settled the slave question, the conflict over Kansas generated bad feelings on both sides. Since everybody agreed that slavery had to expand or die, and since Kansas was the only national territory into which it could conceivably expand, proslavery and antislavery forced girded up for Armageddon (Oates 353).Due to the many controversies, the North was angered and the beneficiary of Northern voter’s wrath was a new political party. The newly formed Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln on principles that opposed the further expansion of slavery. As Lincoln was elected, the South felt expansionism being threatened and the South felt expansion was vital to the survival of slavery. Lincoln maintained that he had always hated human bondage, as much as any abolitionist (Oates 364). The South felt their very way of life being threatened and since slavery was economically important to the southern states, the south felt that they would not prosper without it or the ability to expand their views. The South was convinced that they should make a bid for indepe...
