Talk:Origins of the American Civil War (4/4)

Some questions/issues:

1. "conflict, rather than compromise, depended on a certain set of historical conditions at a certain time". Does this mean that conflict is an exceptional case, which arises only in certain conditions? Or that whether there is conflict or compromise depends on the conditions?
2. "there was a gradual redirection of wheat, corn, and other staples of Western produce toward the Northeast". Where had they gone before?
3. "Noting that Southern plantation interests in the Senate had killed the Homestead Bill of 1852, free soil newspapers in the West often promulgated the dubious claim that the high prices of land sold by the government had been the main cause of the depression." Is there a connection between the southern plantation interests and the high prices of land? If so, what is it?
4. "Although much of the West - the focal point of sectional tensions - was unfit for cotton cultivation, Southern slaveholding interests were still encircled to a greater extent than ever". Why although? Were they not encircled by free states because slaves weren't so useful in the West?

Markalexander100 02:19, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)