American History to 1877 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

American History to 1877 - Assignment Example l Army in the Battle of Brooklyn, the British Government requested to meet the Congress representatives to negotiate for a bloodless resolution to the armed hostilities. This opened the possibility of a peaceful compromise. The colonials were willing enough to send a delegation, which included Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, and talk the matter out with the British imperial army led by Admiral, Lord Richard Howe (The History Place, n.d.). For five years negotiations were ongoing even as the war continued, but the opportunity dissolved when the colonials refused to renounce the Declaration of Independence. The unyielding attitude of both parties finally resulted to the termination of a possible compromise upon American victory in 1781 (Lanning, 2008, p. 246). (2) Union policy over slavery changed throughout the course of the war because of internal rifts between the Northern and Southern states, which were in a tight competition for political power. First, the Southern states wanted slaves to be counted in the census so as to have more representatives in Congress than the North, but this was vetoed by the North. The result was a compromise that each slave was only worth three-fifths of a white Southerner. Second, the South wanted to expand slavery into the newly acquired territories from the Mexican War but Northern states were strongly against this move. Finally, Northern states were angered by the Supreme Court decision to free a slave named Dred Scott, who was brought to a free state by his owner (Oracle ThinkQuest, n.d). These rifts sowed the seeds of the civil war. Abrahalm Lincoln, whose own inconsistent decisions on the slavery issue contributed to the changing policies of the Union, depended on the progression of these rifts befo re he finally conceded to how slavery contradicted the constitutional mandate that â€Å"all men are born equal† and declared war (Taylor, 2008; Public Broadcasting Service, n.d.). (3) America made a lot of transformations from