The United States of America was not having a good time prior to sectionalism, secession, and then civil war. There was so many issues in place that Slavery alone was not enough of an issue to spark one of the bloodiest and violent civil wars that has ever taken place in the western hemisphere. Slavery was an issue that is not debatable; however, there were many other problems that were divided the United States when it should have been working for the whole. Individual interest and politics would take precedent. The States did not want to continually be stifled and walked over by the federal government. Unfortunately this debate became so bad that the north and south were fiercely divided. As the division became bigger and bigger it was only made worse when the election for presidency was decided. Abraham Lincoln would become the country’s 16th president which made things worse. This made people in the southern states very anxious and upset that they would not only be forced to become slave free states but that their state rights would be further reduced. They wanted to limit federal government power and increase political power for each individual state. So they seceded from the Union. With all the issues occurring during this time and when you look at how the south was feeling it is very clear and easy to see that this was so much bigger than slavery itself. All those states did not just up and decided that they would no longer be apart of the United States. There was real problems outside of the slavery issue; moreover, it was always inevitable that the north and south would wind up pointing guns at each other. Battle was always going to happen because they were divided and not working together to bring about compromises that lasted and had success.