>>17778103

Northern politicians played the “expansion of slavery” card to play upon the racist fears of Northerners who did not want to live with blacks.

Their purpose was to build a sectional political coalition in a Northern population, which vastly outnumbered the South. In doing so they could use majorities in both houses of Congress to exploit the South economically. Their platform to keep slavery out of the territories they admitted had nothing at all to do with a concern for the slaves.