The crittenden plan was ?
1 Answer
The Crittenden plan was a effort to advert the Civil War and restore the balance and separation of powers between the Free and the Slave states.
Explanation:
Crittenden a senator from Kentucky, a border state, had sympathy for the positions of both the north and the south.
The fear of the south was that the north would use the power of the Congress and the federal union to slowly squeeze out the institution of slavery. Crittenden proposed a Consitutional amendment making outlawing slavery illegal. Another ensuring the 3/5 compromise could not be repealed, and yet another strengthening the fugitive slave act.
The fear of the north was that with the repeal of the Mason Dixon line as a limit to Slavery under the Nebraska , Kansas Act that slavery would spread until the entire nation was slavery. The Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court essentially making slavery legal throughout the entire United States, including the free slaves was dreaded by the free state people.
The Crittenden plan reestablished the line drawn in the Missouri Compromise of 1820 reestablishing a line between the slave and free states.
The Crittenden plan was opposed by President elect Abraham Lincoln and most of the Republican senators. His plan proposed in Dec 1860 was not enough to ease the fears of both sides. Neither radical pro slavery groups or radical republican abolitionary groups were willing to go back to a separated union, both wanted complete victory and control of the future of the United States.
The Crittenden plan failed to gain enough votes. The effort to advert the war at the last minute failed.
