Question

What was the main reason the Southern states felt that they needed to secede?
In your opinion, why do you think the compromises that Congress made failed to keep the Union together?
Do the failed compromises of the pre-Civil War era remind you of any current issues that Congress seems unable to resolve? If so, explain.

Answer 1

i think Your statement that the American political system had failed is more of an opinion than fact. The Southern states seceded primarily over the threat to the continuance of slavery as an institution. States rights was the idea the common southern man fought for, as few southerners actually owned slaves. The compromises that Congress tried to work out(and this was before the actual secession of the Southern states), failed not because of any effort on the part of the government to keep our nation peaceably joined, but because the Southern states saw Lincoln as a threat to slavery, and so they seceded and that is what broke our country apart.