Cause Of Sectionalism

Sectionalism relied on controversy over the institution of slavery in new territories, and thus the slavery itself was more the cause of sectionalism. New land granted after the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo made the disagreement over slavery show itself, though it was still evident in the North-South religious divide over abolition caused by the Second Great Awakening. As the US took in its new Western lands, the Underground Railroad passed slaves to freedom, inflaming the North with righteous anger and enraging the South over the North's perceived theft. Californian demands for admission as a free state alarmed the South, which called for a convention in 1850 to decide whether or not to secede. Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and and Daniel Webster