... Northerners were committed to free-market capitalism, individual opportunity, and free labor, and many contrasted what they believed to be the civilizing effects of hard work and commerce with the supposed laziness and barbarism of the slave South. Following the 1819 crisis over statehood for Missouri, a national two-party system developed, and both parties worked to prevent ... South had left the Union. Northerners, including President Buchanan, Stephen Douglas, and other Democrat, denied the right of secession. The more lawyerly among them reminded the South that the Constitution was ...

• Word Count: 748
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate