From the beginning of its new nation, the United States had many differences between the northern and southern states. During the Constitutional Convention they disagreed on how to determine their representation in the House based on population; Southerners wanted to count their slaves and Northerners did not, which led to the Three-Fifths Compromise. Later in the Convention concessions were made to the South, which left Northerners uneasy, such as: a guarantee that the slave trade would not be interfered with by Congress until 1808 and slaveholders were given the right to recover refugee slaves from any location in the United States. Although many Northern delegates were disappointed with the rights granted to the South, they believed it was necessary for the good of the nation. This was necessary to form a strong central government and a union between the states. As the country began to grow and expand, we continued to see disagreements between the North and the South; the Missouri Territory applied to become a state, the South wanted them admitted as a slave state and the North as a free state. Henry Clay eventually arrived at the Missouri Compromise, making Missouri a slave state and making Maine its own state by entering the union as a free state. After this compromise any state admitted into the union south of latitude 36° 30' would be a slave state, and a state north of it would be free. During this period the country was very sectioned. Thomas Jefferson felt this was a threat to the Union. In 1821 he wrote: “Everyone, I fear, does not see the speck on our horizon which will sooner or later burst upon us like a tornado. The line of division recently drawn between the different parts of our confederacy is such... middle of the paper... re with Dew's reasons for the Civil War, I think Silbey has made a very good point too. The North and South had been divided for years on many issues, yet a majority of members of Congress still came together when necessary for the good of the Nation, until 1854. After Lincoln won the 1860 election, the Nation was divided from sectionalism. . Because of the division of the nation and the paranoia of Southerners about freeing slaves, I believe both issues were what led to the Civil War. Works CitedBrands, HW. American Stories: A History of the United States. 2nd ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2012. Print. Madaras, Larry, and James M. SoRelle. Issue 14 “Was Slavery the Key Issue in the Sectional Conflict That Lead to the Civil War?” Taking Sides. 13th ed. Dubuque, IA: McGraw Hill Higher Education, 2009. 310-329. Press.