Читать книгу American Civil War For Dummies - Keith D. Dickson - Страница 28

IN THIS CHAPTER

Facing constitutional issues again

Noting the collapse of national political parties

Looking at the 1860 election as a turning point

Asking, “How did things get so bad?”

Throughout the 1850s, the North and South continued to diverge along economic, political, and social lines. They knew less and less about each other, and each came to believe the worst about the other side. In fact, by this time, many Northerners and Southerners viewed each other as a separate people. National consensus and compromise became impossible to achieve.

The differences between the North and South became more pronounced in this decade because neither the Congress, nor the Supreme Court, nor the president could deal effectively with the divisive issue of slavery. Events pulled both the sections, the North and South, closer to the belief that only drastic action would resolve the nation’s problems.