During the time period of 1819 – 1856 there were some good and there were the bad. Some of the good was the Free states for the north and slave states for the south and more land for expansionists to live in such as California and Texas.
The bad things during this era were dealing with the issue of slavery and which state would be considered a slave or a free state.Tensions were increased by territorial expansion due to the issue of slavery, new laws/acts being created and certain of events occurring. With the territorial expansion caused tensions dealing with slavery. There was an issue what state would be a free state or slave state. For example: no one knew what state would be free or not free, so they decided to make an act called the Kansas and Nebraska act.
The Kansas Nebraska act simply explained that territories newly or already states would determine if their state would be a slave state or free state, which caused tension because if kansas became a slave state it would ruin the missouri compromise. If other states would be slave states it would ignore the wilmot proviso that stated that there will be no slavery in the existing territories or newly acquired territory. Laws/acts are designed to provide our country with safety everyday and improve things daily. In this time period laws/acts had their benefits and there negative outcomes.
One law or amendment that caused some problems which was the missouri compromise that stated that missouri would be a slave state and maine would become a free state and slavery would be destroyed above 36,30 line. Another act , in this case it’s is a treaty that provides peace with other countries. This treaty would be the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in document 5 there is a map shading some land, that land was acquired from the treaty which brought in texas,oregon,and the beautiful california. This caused some tension because no one knew what to do with these states, the north and south were both heated when the south wanted to have slave states and that caused the north to resent the south more.
Events that occurred dealing with territorial expansion did cause tension like for example the gold rush of 1848 in california so many expansionists came from different states hoping for the glorious gold that is hidden in california, which caused california to want to become a state because the limit to become a state is 60,000 and the gold rush provided that. This caused some issues because the constitution that california had required would erase slavery and that caused the south to feel violent when california wanted to be a state. Another event dealing with territorial expansion that led to tension was the annexation of texas led to the whigs fearing that if they did have texas that it would feed the power of slavery which did occur and did lead to the mexican american war. Tensions were doubled to the max dealing with expansion due to the issue of slavery, new laws/acts being created and certain of events occurring.
