Читать книгу American Civil War For Dummies - Keith D. Dickson - Страница 45

Many influential leaders in the cotton South came to believe that separation from the Union was inevitable to save their way of life. To many Southern partisans, Northerners were cold, self-righteous and mercenary, all too willing to impose their beliefs on others. Others cited the economic and social benefits of the slave-based cotton economy. Slaveholders controlled most of the wealth in the United States. The value of slaves as property exceeded $3 billion dollars – more than all the nation's accumulated wealth in manufacturing and transportation. Still others spoke of filibusters, quasi-legal military expeditions to Central America and Cuba, to secure new American territory for slavery.

More and more moderate Northerners and Southerners began to see their opponents as threats to their way of life, leading to a growing sense that no solution was possible. As a result, every event after 1856 created a heightened sense of danger. Events moved decisions to a crisis point very quickly in the years between 1856 and 1860.

It is not surprising that in the midst of this intense sectional debate over constitutional rights and slavery that the Supreme Court should become involved. Many hoped the Supreme Court’s decision on the legality of extending slavery in the territories would put the issue to rest once and for all. Of course, many of these same people had hoped the Kansas-Nebraska Act would settle the issue forever, too.