The text authors conclude that “it was the issue of slave expansion–a

The text authors conclude that “it was the issue of slave expansion–and not the morality of slavery–that would . . . lead the United States to civil war.” Write an argument with specific evidence that supports this conclusion.

What will be an ideal response?

ANSWER
As a political issue, slavery was absent from debate after 1820 until its expansion became an issue during the Mexican War. Free Soilers were not racial egalitarians, they were primarily motivated by a desire to keep blacks out of the west–ban slavery from the west, and their goal was accomplished. In the Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott decision, etc., the key debate was over the authority of the federal government to ban slavery from the territories versus its obligation to protect slavery in the territories.