Discussion Topic:

The common perception is that because the South maintained the immoral institution of slavery and seceded from the Union, it must have caused the Civil War. However, there are various interpretations of the coming of the Civil War. Some historians argue that both North and South caused the Civil War by misinterpreting each other’s motives and failing to seek real reconciliations to settle grievances fairly. According to this view, following the introduction of the Wilmont Proviso, the country was increasingly divided along sectional lines, which destroyed the ability of the national parties to find workable compromises. The Compromise of 1850 exemplifies such failure. The nature of this failure to compromise rested on fundamental disagreement over the issue.

We discussed a similar question before the Revolution but we will also consider here: was the Civil War inevitable given the staunch disagreement and failure/unwillingness to compromise? Explain your position using specific reasoning. Then….

…what modern issue can you find a correlation to in this process (i.e. the failure to compromise due to a fundamental disagreement over the issue)? Explain both the correlation and your perspective.