Question

Read through the following timeline of events and determine which one you feel was most crucial in leading our nation to war.

• 1820 - Missouri Compromise: The legislation prohibited slavery in the newly acquired Louisiana Territory above the 36°30’N latitude line, admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state, and Maine as a free state in order to maintain the balance of slave and free states in the Senate.
• 1846 - Wilmot Proviso: Although the Wilmot Proviso banning slavery in territories acquired from Mexico did not become law, it did reignite a bitter debate over slavery after nearly thirty years without debate on the issue in Congress.
• 1850 - Compromise of 1850: Stephen Douglas helped achieve a compromise in 1850 that admitted California as a free state, provided popular sovereignty for two territories, passed the Fugitive Slave Act, provided compensation to Texas, and abolished the slave trade in Washington, D.C. What it didn’t do was achieve a permanent solution to the issue of slavery for the whole country.
• 1854 - Kansas-Nebraska Act: In 1854 Douglas offered the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which called for popular sovereignty (allowing the people of a territory to decide whether to allow slavery or not), thus destroying the Missouri Compromise and resulting in violence in Kansas.
• 1857 - Dred Scott Ruling: In 1857 the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision denied African Americans, slave or free, any citizenship rights; declared that slaves were property; and overturned both popular sovereignty and any remaining elements of the Missouri Compromise.
• 1859 - Abolitionist John Brown tried to incite a slave rebellion by attacking the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry to steal armaments. He was caught, tried, found guilty of treason, and hanged. He was seen as a dangerous madman in the South, but as a martyr for the cause of liberty among Northern abolitionists and others.
• 1860 - Abraham Lincoln, opposing the expansion of slavery into the territories but promising to leave the institution of slavery alone where it already existed, defeated three other candidates to win the presidential election. South Carolina declared that it would secede and other states rapidly followed suit.

What event was most crucial in leading the nation to war?
a) 1820 - Missouri Compromise
b) 1846 - Wilmot Proviso
c) 1854 - Kansas-Nebraska Act
d) 1860 - Abraham Lincoln's Election

Answer 1

Option (d), The most crucial event leading to the Civil War was Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860, as it caused a drastic sectional split and directly precipitated the secession of Southern states.

Step-by-step explanation:

Among the listed events, d) 1860 - Abraham Lincoln's Election was the most crucial in leading the nation to war. Lincoln's victory signified a deep divide between the Northern and Southern states over the issue of slavery expansion into new territories. Despite Lincoln's assurance to not interfere with slavery where it already existed, his position against the expansion of slavery was clear, and his election was the final straw for Southern states. The secession of South Carolina, followed by other Southern states, positioned the nation on the brink of civil war, ultimately leading to the conflict commencing in 1861.

Previous events such as the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision increased sectional tensions but did not immediately precipitate war. Lincoln's election, coming after a decade of rising hostilities and failing compromises, acted as the catalyst for the secessionist movement that triggered the American Civil War.