Manifest Destiny and the Civil War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Manifest Destiny and the Civil War - Essay Example By 1787, slavery was recognized in the Constitution (General History of the United Sates Supreme Court, accessed 2011). Slavery was not regulated within States through Congress. Until 1808, only the movement of slaves into States, or between States up to that date, was taxed and hence regulated (US Constitution: Art. I Sec. 9 Para.1). Slavery was, then, accepted as a fact which existed within States, and the federal Government restricted its involvement in the affairs of individual States. States made their own decisions about whether they were â€Å"Free States†, or whether they would allow slavery, and Congress respected those decisions. This meant that as the United States expanded, new States were declared, and in fact could make their own decisions about whether slavery was to be allowed or not. In 1819, Missouri appealed to be included in the Confederation as a slave-owning State. This appeal was met by much resistance from the Northern States – in which Abolition ism was dominant – and the Midwestern States – where economies without slave labor would struggle against the slave-owning State economies. But Missouri entered the Confederation as a slave-owning State in 1819.