Elephant in Congress

Recently, our class has been discussing the events that ended up starting the Civil War. We learned about 8 distinct events that all contributed the the start of the Civil War. The events that favored the Abolitionist side were placed above the graph. The events that favored the pro-slavery side were placed below the graph. The events that benefited or handicapped either side were placed in between the graph. For this lesson,, the essential question was, " How we know the debate over slavery was the "elephant in the room" for the American politics in the early 18th century?"

The first event that we examined, was the Compromise of 1850. This compromise consisted of 5 parts. 3 out of the 5 parts were beneficial to pro-slavery advocates, and the other 2 benefited the abolitionist movement. The next event was the Kansas-Nebraska act, which benefited both the pro-slavery movement and the Abolitionist movement. With this act, the Abolitionist would gain a railroad system in to the west, but in turn the act would essentially make the missouri compromise useless.

All of the events in chronological order. Top=Northern Benefits. Buttom=Southern Benefits

Descriptions of each event

With this act, it leads to the next event, Bloody Kansas. Blood Kansas was the rush, from both Abolitionist and pro-slavery advocates, to settle the Kansas territory. This event ended in a draw, because neither gained any ground with on Kansa's pro/anti slave standing in congress. The last two major important events were the Dred Scott decision. The Dred Scott was a slave who was an enslaved man in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters in 1857. The Dred Scott decision further intensified the slave issue, by making Abolitionist paranoid that the Government was controlled by a sinister "slave power".

This lesson showed that eventually, politicians will go to extremes to avoid talking about "The elephant in the room". Throughout every single one of the significant events mentioned, niether side of the governments actually addressed the issue, they just bickered and side tracked into a more complicated (kinda like the congress today). It's always easier to deal with the elephant first.