Topic 5.6
Failure of Compromise
THEMATIC FOCUS Politics and Power (PCE)
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions, political parties, and the rights of citizens.
Unit 5: Learning Objective G
Explain the political causes of the Civil War.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS
KC-5.2.II.B.ii
The courts and national leaders made a variety of attempts to resolve the issue of slavery in
the territories, including the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision, but these ultimately failed to reduce conflict.
KC-5.2.II.C
The Second Party System ended when the issues of slavery and anti-immigrant nativism weakened loyalties to the two major parties and fostered the emergence of sectional parties, most notably the Republican Party in the North.