The problem of fair treatment of the South was the major issue as Calhoun saw it as well. Though he died shortly after this speech was read (too ill to read it himself, Calhoun was escorted from the floor after someone read it in his place), Calhoun is still considered one of the primary instigators of the Civil War. In this speech, he cites not slavery but general under-representation of

Compromise of 1850 Compare and contrast the arguments of the speeches. The different arguments presented by Seward, Calhoun and Webster are illustrating how divisive slavery was to the nation. William Henry Seward was an abolitionist, who felt that slavery should be outlawed in every state. Anything less than this standard, was considered to be unacceptable. This is because he felt that the practice violated the basic ideals established under theological and moral

Mexican-American War (1846-1848) The Great Territorial Loss From the perspective of the United States, the Mexican-American War, together with the Louisiana Purchase, represented important land acquisitions as part of the country's relentless expansion westward. In this regard, Kurth (1999) reports that, "There were grand achievements in this national project of continental expansion, especially the southwestern annexations, which were achieved through U.S. military victory in the Mexican-American War. In this case, the United

" Although the use of the word "aggressions" in this manner certainly suggests that Calhoun is of the opposite opinion of Seward, his treatment of the issue of slavery offers further insight into how the issue was treated in the mid-1800s. Instead of considering slavery a clear issue of right and wrong, Calhoun treats it like any other political issue, arguing that the real cause between the states' inability to

African-Americans and Western Expansion Prior to the 1960s and 1970s, very little was written about black participation in Western expansion from the colonial period to the 19th Century, much less about black and Native American cooperation against slavery. This history was not so much forbidden or censored as never written at all, or simply ignored when it was written. In reality, blacks participated in all facets of Western expansion, from the

Alexander Hamilton carried on an affair with the wife of "a notorious political schemer," Maria Reynolds. Andrew Jackson married Rachel Jackson before her divorce from Lewis Robards was finalized and therefore was accused of marrying a married woman. Jackson's opponent in 1828, John Quincy Adams, was in turn accused of "corrupt bargaining" during his term. Jackson also championed Margaret O'Neill Timberlake, who married his secretary of war, John Eaton.