Constitution 1850 Dbq

In 1782 Americans won their independence from Britain in the American Revolution. After the colonies won their independence, Americans created the Constitution. Its purpose was to replace the Articles of Confederation and solve its problems and more importantly to bring the states together under a single document creating a stronger union of all the states. There was one problem though: there were a few fundamental issues that the framers could not agree on. In the early nineteenth century the United States began to split, but as the mid-century came around, people became more polarized in their views and the union started to separate drastically. During the period of 1850, until 1861 when the Confederate States of America was formed, the union was clearly divided between the North and South. Although the Constitution was not the only factor leading to sectional tension in America, there are many strong points in the North and South favoring the statement, "By the 1850's the Constitution, originally framed as an instrument of national unity, had become a source of sectional discord and tension and ultimately contributed to the failure of the union it had created." It is known that the union did not last, for there was the Civil War. If everyone could agree on what the Constitution implied, then there probably would not have been a civil war. The Constitution was clearly interpreted in different ways. There were many conflicts between the north and south about the issue of slavery in the Constitution. This issue was touched up with the compromise of 1850 (Doc A) and the fugitive slave act. One concept of this compromise was known as “popular sovereignty” where Utah and New Mexico decided to vote on whether they want slavery at the time of statehood application. However, the strict fugitive slave law commanded the capture of any runaway slave. After the fugitive slave law was enacted, many personal liberty laws were created in the North and colored people were