During the final outbreak of the Civil War, the issue of slavery was largely avoided until it became a huge controversy from 1850 to 1861, particularly between the North and the South. From the nation's beginning, the founding fathers had collaborated to create the Constitution, which was to unite the nation and its people. Clearly, as slavery threatened to destroy the union, the Constitution proved powerless to ease the growing tensions. Over time, the Constitution's imperfections were revealed to Americans one by one. By the 1850s, the Constitution had failed to produce clear terms on the process of determining whether new states would be free or slave, the status of slaves and free blacks regarding fugitive slave laws, and the question of secession within discontented states. . All of these flaws contributed to the ultimate failure of the nation, with the looming civil war not far away. By the 1850s, disputes over whether a newly admitted state would be a free or slave territory and the procedure to follow had reached dangerous levels. , notably because the Constitution did not proclaim anything about slavery until later. Previously, when the United States annexed a new state, Northern and Southern leaders had to maintain balance between the sections to avoid disrupting the equally distributed regional power. When California, New Mexico, and Utah filed to be admitted as states in 1849, the perplexity of preserving balance confounded the government and its people. According to southerners and pro-slavery supporters, the Constitution had actually recognized slavery. Since the men of the South had helped in the acquisition of the new lands, they also believed... middle of paper... each region considered the other its enemy. Since America's founding, the Constitution promised to unite the nation and bring the people together. Although this was the dream of the Founding Fathers, it did not reach its peak when slavery came into debate. By the 1850s, the purpose of the Constitution no longer lived up to its initial image and the government struggled to resolve all the problems, including the inability to devise an effective way to decide whether slavery would exist within a new state, the discontent of slaves and free blacks in the country. relation to fugitive slave laws and the fight against secession in the South. When the controversies could no longer be contained, the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter. Indeed, the subject of slavery had torn the nation apart; the United States of America was anything but "united" »”.