Causes of the American Civil War and the Failure of Compromise

Class Schedule and Duration:
- The final exam will begin at $03:30$ , just like a normal class session.
- Students will be required to stay longer than the usual class duration, ending at roughly $05:45$ .
- The total time allotted for the final exam is two hours and fifteen minutes.
Materials and Tools:
- Blue Books: The instructor will provide "Blue Books," which are small booklets used for writing final essays. Students do not need to purchase their own.
- Outlines: Students are permitted to bring their outlines to the exam. While the instructor suggests one-sided outlines to help maintain focus, two-sided outlines are allowed.
- Exam Question: Students may bring the physical copy of the exam question if it provides them with a "security blanket," though the outline should be sufficient to answer it.
Effective Preparation Strategies:
- The recommended method of preparation is to write the full essay at home first.
- Once the essay is written, the student should "boil it down" into a concise outline.
- During the exam, the task is to convert that outline back into the full essay.
- Length Guidelines:
  - A typical prepared essay should be no more than four typewritten pages.
  - Four typewritten pages usually translate to six or eight pages in a Blue Book.
  - Historically, successful essays are at least five or six Blue Book pages, which equals approximately two and a half to three typed pages.

Initial Conflicts: The issue of slavery was a primary point of division at the Constitutional Convention; the speaker notes that the country almost failed to form because of it.
Management Strategies: The Founders used two primary methods to handle slavery: compromise and avoidance.
Avoidance Tactics:
- The word "slave" is notably absent from the Constitution to avoid the appearance of the document sanctioning the institution.
- Instead, they utilized terms like "other persons."
The Three-Fifths Compromise: This dealt with representation and taxation.
- Northern Perspective: Northerners did not want slaves counted for representation, arguing that slaves were property and not citizens (unlike children, who were counted but had no vote).
- Southern Perspective: Southerners wanted slaves counted for representation to increase their political power but did not want them counted for "head taxes."
- Head Tax: A system where the federal government levied a tax (e.g., $3$ per person) across the states. Southerners wanted slaves counted as property in this context to avoid those costs.
The International Slave Trade:
- The Constitution prohibited Congress from interfering with the international slave trade for twenty years.
- On January 1, 1808—the first day it was legally possible—Congress passed a bill overwhelmingly to end the trade.
- Only South Carolina and Georgia voted against the ban, as slavery was in decline in other states at that time.

Slavery as a National Issue (1819): After a period of relative quiet, slavery returned to the national stage because of the Louisiana Purchase (1803).
The Missouri Crisis: In 1819, the territory of Missouri sought admission as a slave state. Slavery already existed there, and the US had promised to respect the property rights of French residents.
The Compromise of 1820:
- Missouri entered as a slave state.
- Maine entered as a free state to maintain the balance (previously 11-11, moving to 12-12).
- Latitude Line: The compromise established a border at $36^{\circ}30'$ (Missouri's southern border). Slavery was prohibited in the Louisiana Purchase territory north of this line, except for Missouri.
- Climatic Justification: At the time, it was believed that plantation crops like cotton were only viable in areas with specific rainfall and climate patterns found below this line.