Post #3 - Mason-Dixon Line

In class this week, we explored the expansion of slavery through a series of maps and crucial events. We have discussed up to the Compromise of 1850, after which the stage is essentially set for a civil war. My question is, was the country destined for a civil war ever since the Mason-Dixon line? It came about in the Missouri compromise in 1820, and essentially split the United Sates into two separate peoples before the country even had all its territory. It made all future space above the line free, and all of the property below the line already slave states. Although the possibility of the South seceding was first brought up in 1846, they were already split 26 years before this. In terms of policy, they two areas were split by the Missouri compromise as well. Anything North of the line was to be free, and anything South of the line was to have slavery, already creating the notion that the North and South were not the same. As Lincoln said in a speech, "a house divided against itself cannot stand," and although this came later in history, the United States was in fact divided at this point in time. So what kept them from a war earlier? Was it that no one was prepared? Were the people not yet ready to go to war yet? Did most believe that war was avoidable? Now, its hard to understand what people were thinking over 150 years ago, but it seems like the problem was beyond repair by this time, and that the "compromise" did not in fact solve this issue.