Sometimes the best thing a president can do is nothing at all. Sometimes it's not. Franklin Pierce had to decide which was which, knowing that on his decision hung the future of his presidency, his party and his country. He could blame Stephen Douglas for putting him in this position. Douglas, an Illinois Democratic senator whose ambition so outstripped his physical stature that he was dubbed the Little Giant, was bent on overthrowing three decades of settled law on the most unsettling question in America, the future of slavery in the federal territories. In 1820 Congress had approved the Missouri Compromise, which divided the trans-Mississippi west into a forever-free north and a presumptively slave south. Douglas proposed to tear up the compromise and relitigate the issue.
This " What's a prez to do" is a great series- thanks for keeping it rolling.
In regards to this particular topic, I have always thought that even had Lincoln not fought to keep the union, there would be war between the north and south. The southern states as the Confederacy were basically an expansionist fascist state. Their goal was to expand slavery west as well as south into Cuba and even Brazil if I recall. Western expansion would naturally create sectional tension as it was doing so in your article, except it would be between two nations. Escaped slaves to a non-slave northern "United States" would also be a bone of contention and it would have been highly unlikely that the United States (USA) would have signed a treaty with a CSA to return them. We would have likely had armed outposts along a USA-CSA border.
This " What's a prez to do" is a great series- thanks for keeping it rolling.
In regards to this particular topic, I have always thought that even had Lincoln not fought to keep the union, there would be war between the north and south. The southern states as the Confederacy were basically an expansionist fascist state. Their goal was to expand slavery west as well as south into Cuba and even Brazil if I recall. Western expansion would naturally create sectional tension as it was doing so in your article, except it would be between two nations. Escaped slaves to a non-slave northern "United States" would also be a bone of contention and it would have been highly unlikely that the United States (USA) would have signed a treaty with a CSA to return them. We would have likely had armed outposts along a USA-CSA border.
Looking forward to the next installment though!