The United States Constitution was ratified in 1787 to make a stronger and better central government. Although it was hard to get it ratified, especially in the southern states, it was meant to keep the country together and to be the extreme law of the land. This document, although nearly perfect, did not mention slavery at all, as William Lloyd Garrison states in document B. This, to some extent, caused the nation to rip apart, but it was not the only thing that did. Although some people believe that the constitution caused disunity among the union it was not the constitution itself, but many different factors like the compact theory and slavery which angered either the north or the south.
The compact theory started in the revolutionary ages of the United States. Thomas Jefferson in Document C explains that if a government is being unfair, it is the right of the people to overthrow it.
English: Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President ...
Abraham Lincoln, three-quarter length portrait, se...
The Peacemakers.The south believes that the Union is being unfair to them and is being tyrannical by applying laws, mostly tariffs, which cause the north to become stronger while the south is drained. One of the laws which angered the south a little bit was the compromise of 1850 as shown in Document A. This compromise was not liked too much in the south because even though it admitted a strict fugitive slave law, it accepted California as a free state. This disturbed the balance of free to slave state ratio and angered the south. Tariffs also played a role in the separation because they hurt the south and helped the north commercially and economically. But probably the biggest reason for separation was states' rights. The south did not want to get pushed around by a government. They believed that the states should have more power...