By the 1850s the constitution, originally framed as an instrument of national unity, had become a source of sectional discord and tension and ultimately contributed to the failure of the union it had created. using the documents and your knowledge of the period 1850-1861, assess the validity of this statement.

For the answer to the question above, most historians would agree that this is an entirely valid statement. The main argument was over states rights versus federal rights (concerning slavery), which the Constitution was very, and intentionally, unclear about. I hope this helps

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holesstanham holesstanham · Answer 2 · 2020-01-27T13:41:23+01:00

Although we are not provided with the documents you are referring to, we can still try to judge this statement based on the things we know about this period.

Before the signing of the Constitution, many states were fearful about the possibility of the federal government gaining a lot of power and exerting too much control over the states. This fear gave rise to a concern that would dominate the following years. This tension between the power of the states and the power of the federal government became particularly obvious when it came to the subject of slavery. While the Constitution had provided unity to the nation following the Revolutionary War, it became a source of tension as the principles it proposed (equality, liberty, etc.) were dramatically opposed to the maintenance of the practice of slavery. Therefore, the Constitution became a source of national tension between the North and the South.