

With his fiery anti-slavery language, southern politicians feared that such an act would upset the careful balance between Free and Slave states and would ultimately preclude attempts to abolish all slavery.

Things finally came to a headway in the presidential election of 1860, in which abolitionist Abraham Lincoln of the newly formed Republican party ran on a platform of limiting the extension of slavery into the western territories. However, debate between northern abolitionists and southern plantation owners continued to heat up as more and more violence over the issue broke out, especially over events such as John Brown's Raid and the Bloody Kansas. A delicate balance between Free and Slave states was agreed upon in the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which sought to continue a status quo. However, since its inception following the American war of Independence from the British crown, the country has been plagued by fierce debate over the issue of slavery, which at this time all European countries (with exception of Denmark) had banned by now.

