It reads: "Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved," (Jensen 20). Yet it soon became clear that there was a need for some strength in a centralized federal government in terms of foreign relations and trade. Thus, the Articles were revised and the Constitution was written around ten years after the actual Revolution. The Constitution allowed for states to keep elements of their sovereignty, but also included stronger federal power that could be used to help regulate the states and deal with foreign relations and trade. Yet even the creation of the very document that was supposed to unite them, "From the start of the new government under the Constitution, participants in the debates in Congress frequently exhibited a highly sensitive awareness of the existence of sections within the Federal Union," (Jensen 30). There was a fierce division of the state delegates who pitted against the idea of exactly how much power the federal government was to have. The Federalists, spearheaded by Alexander...

Whereas, the Anti-Federalists, with, believed the exact opposite and preached more strength within states' hands. This then promoted the age old sectionalism that had been a part of the government's framework since the nation's very first inception.
Throughout the 19th century, regionalism flourished within American politics and policies. In fact, regional tensions regarding taxes and slavery became the essential division between major regional differences both in Congress and in real life. Southerners fiercely fought for their right to maintain and spread their source of free labor. Northerners demanded fair competition and the representation of the United States as a modern and humane nation. This divisions heated political divisions to a boiling point, and eventually compromises meant nothing. Despite the many steps taken to avoid the Civil War, such as the Compromise of 1850, it was clear that sectionalism had caused an irrevocable division between the two regions. Thus, the Civil War was inevitable.

References

Jensen, Merrill G. (1951). Regionalism in America. University of Wisconsin Press. Retrieved using Questia.com scholarly library…