Nationalism and Sectionalism

Nationalism and Sectionalism Essay
    During the antebellum period, the United States was torn between embracing nationalism and supporting sectionalism. Although nationalism was becoming a popular movement during the antebellum period in America, sectionalism continued to divide the county, especially the North and South. Both the ideas of Nationalism and Sectionalism were widely practiced during this period.
      Despite the many of instances of nationalism seen during the antebellum period, the North and South were still greatly separated. The North saw the rise of manufacturing; increased economic linkages to the West due to the Transportation Revolution; and a mass wave of German and Irish immigrants. Northern towns opened more and more factories in order to satisfy consumer demands. These factors all contributed to the emergence of a unique Northern identity by the 1830s. Improved agricultural technology, such as Eli Whitney's cotton gin, allowed the South to produce raw materials for Northern factories faster and cheaper. “Sir, I am convinced that it would be… unjust, to aggravate the burdens of the people for the purpose of favoring the manufacturers for this government created and gave power to congress to regulate commerce and equalize duties on the whole United States, and not to lay a duty but with a steady eye to revenue. With my goodwill, sir [no] one interest in the country [should be] sacrificed by the management of taxation to another…. The agriculturalists bear the whole brunt of the war and taxation, and remain poor, while the others run in the ring of pleasure, and fatten upon them.” (Doc A).
        First of all, the controversial issue of the Missouri compromise, and more importantly the issue of slavery rose. Sectional tensions, involving rivalry between the slave south and the free north over the control of the Missouri territory. Missouri, a territory, had applied for admission into the union as a slave state. But the House of...