Question

A letter to the editor is a statement of your opinion on an issue about which you feel strongly. Choose two events that you believe pulled the nation furthest apart in the mid-1800s. Write a letter to the editor about those events. Use your Lesson 21 Notes to pick 2 events. Your letter should be written from the time period of your event and should:

have an appropriate date.
include your (fictitious) name and where you live.
be two paragraphs{5-7 Sentences} long. (One for each Event)
briefly describe the events in one or two sentences. (Start each paragraph with a brief description of the event)
explain why you believe this event pulled the nation apart and eventually led to civil war.
be free of grammatical and spelling errors.

Answer 1

The two events that greatly pulled the nation apart in the mid-1800s were the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, both of which inflamed the national debate on slavery and exacerbated the North-South sectional divide, contributing to the onset of the Civil War.

Step-by-step explanation:

April 15, 1856
Sincerely, Amos W. Hartfield
Columbia, South Carolina

One of the most divisive events of the mid-1800s was undoubtedly the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This legislation effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise by allowing settlers in those territories to determine if they would be free or slave states through popular sovereignty. The act sparked violent confrontations, known as 'Bleeding Kansas,' and it further intensified the sectional divide between the North and the South. I believe this act was instrumental in driving our nation apart because it reopened the contentious debate on slavery that we had sought to settle, and instead of providing a solution, it led to more strife and bloodshed.

Another event that tore the fabric of our Union was the Dred Scott Decision of 1857. When the Supreme Court ruled that African Americans, whether free or enslaved, could not be American citizens and had no standing to sue in federal court, it sent shockwaves through the nation. This decision invalidated the Missouri Compromise line, which had attempted to maintain a balance of power between slave and free states. This egregious judgment by the Supreme Court deepened the chasm between the North and South because it challenged the moral and legal foundations upon which our Republic stands - that all men are created equal.