f a Yankee Abolitionist” (85).
Another factor responsible for the growing antislavery movement was the technological boom in the North, a region that had freed slaves. Men like Southerner John C. Calhoun argued in favor maintaining slavery, charging that the North’s views on the institution would lead to Civil War. However, he was strongly rebutted by men of eloquence and force like Daniel Webster. Webster was staunchly opposed to slavery and any attempts of succession by Southern states. Webster argued that the South had actually maintained control over the Northern states because of the success of the cotton industry, largely fueled by free slave labor. For slavery to go in the South, Webster argued such exploitation for profits must cease. As he stated, “So far as making any motive of honor, justice, and general judgment could act, it was the cotton interest that gave a new desire to promote slavery” (Unger 250). Once Lincoln was elected, the slaveholding states seceded from the Union and war became imminent.
B) Despite its exploitative and atrocious nature, many politicians and other Southerners argued in favor of slavery. One of the biggest arguments offered in its favor by those who did so was the fact that the Constitution of the U.S. did not prohibit slavery nor make mention of it. John C. Calhoun argued that the North had no right to wield power over the South on such issues. Calhoun supported slavery but he argued that the North’s invalid claim of power over the issue was against the Constitution. As he wrote, “As it now stands, one section has the exclusive power of controlling the Government, which leaves the other without any adequate means of protecting itself against its encroachment and oppression” (Unger 244).
Senator John Douglas also strongly supported slavery. He debated the issue with Abraham Lincoln in some of the most contentious political debates in U.S. history. Douglass belie...