This explains the entire “spread of slavery” question:
in 1860, in the New Mexico Territory, an area which encompassed the area presently occupied by the States of New Mexico and Arizona, that there were a grand total of 22 slaves, only 12 of whom were actually domiciled there. If the South intended to be a “Slave Power,” spreading its labor system across the entire continent, it was doing a pretty poor job of it. Commenting on this fact, an English publication in 1861 said, “When, therefore, so little pains are taken to propagate slavery outside the circle of the existing slave states, it cannot be that the extension of slavery is desired by the South on social or commercial grounds directly, and still less from any love for the thing itself for its own sake. But the value of New Mexico and Arizona politically is very great! In the Senate they would count as 4 votes with the South or with the North according as they ranked in the category of slave holding or Free soil states”.
Notice that when the Southern states seceded, they left with only their own sovereign territory. They made no claim to territories owned by the US. If they were on some holy crusade to spread slavery for its own sake, why then was their solution to forego any chance of spreading slavery? The answer is simple. It was all a power struggle. What they were really after prior to 1861 was votes in the Senate. They needed those votes to protect themselves from Northern business interests pushing economic policies that were very harmful to the South. Once they had left, they no longer needed to be concerned about votes in the Senate. Thus the territories were of no great concern to them.
Yes, but elevating the Kansas statehood slavery issue to a really big crisis was unwise to say the least.
FLT-bird: ***”Notice that when the Southern states seceded, they left with only their own sovereign territory.
They made no claim to territories owned by the US.”***
I’d say that crosses the line from myth to outright lie.
Confederates claimed & sent forces into Union territories of New Mexico and Oklahoma, as well as Union Missouri, Kentucky and West Virginia.
Confederates also invaded Union Maryland, Pennsylvania, ohio, Indiana & Kansas and had guerrillas in California, Colorado & Vermont among others.
So all Lost Cause claims that Confederates “just wanted to be left aline” are pure nonsense.