s more willing to seek government control and protection.
Economic issues were a source of dissension between the two regions, especially in terms of the exercise of constitutional power by the central government in economic matters. The conflict between North and South over ideology was framed in terms of nationalism versus sectionalism, and the South was a sectionalism region that wanted to have its own rules and government. The nullification controversy highlighted this issue as South Carolina in 1832 declared the tariff laws null and void:
This doctrine asserted that a state could refuse to allow laws it deemed unconstitutional to be executed within its borders.
Northern manufacturers and growers saw the South as having an unfair advantage, and the South jealously guarded that advantage against any abolitionist talk. Compromises were worked out by which slavery was outlawed in new territories, but it was still allowed in the Southern states where it had become an entrenched and seemingly necessary part of the economy. The view developed that the Republicans were a northern party. The Democratic party at the time was split into sectional halves over certain issue and actions, such as the Dred Scott decision in 1857, the constitutional crisis in Kansas in 1857, the Lincoln-Douglas debates in Illinois in 1858, John Brown's raid in Virginia in 1859, and the election of Lincoln in 1860.
There were those in the Southern states who saw no way to continue as part of the national structure and who wanted to secede from the union. It was in part a question of states' rights over federal rights, as noted--secessionists claimed that the states had agreed to become part of the union but could also decide not to be part of the union and could withdraw. The secessionist movement grew, and secessionists chose South Carolina as their launching pad, passing a resolution that the union was dissolved as soon as Abraham Lincoln ...