In 1858, William Seward spoke of an "irrepressible conflict" between slavery and freedom, and Abraham Lincoln announced that the nation could not be "permanently half-slave and half-free." Both were suggesting that conflict and disunion over the slavery issue were inevitable. Were they right? Was a peaceful solution impossible? Explain.

Seward and Lincoln were right in terms of the issue of slavery. America could not have existed as half slave and half free. Several different historical effects prove this to be true.

One example would be the Missouri Compromise (1820). This compromise was supposed to solve the slavery issue, as it established that any territory the US gained that was above the 36'30 coordinates would be a territory with no slavery. Anything below this line would be a slave territory.

However, this line did not solve the issue. This is because the US wanted to add California as a state. The problem here is that the 36'30 line cut California in half. So they developed the Compromise of 1850, making California a free state and adding in new fugitive slave laws to make southerners happy. However, many northerners did not follow these laws. Along with this, southerners refused to abide by northern laws that abolished slavery.

These events show that America could not exist as half free or half slave, as all of the compromises failed to solve the issue of slavery.