The North and the South had stereotyped one another and each group thought they were doing everything much better than the other was. The major problem they were having was how to handle the issue of slavery in the territories.
President Polk was unaware that his desire for expansion would eventually divide the Whig party, and bring to the open an aggressive southern theory on slavery in the territories. In 1846 the Oregon Treaty was signed giving the United States all of present-day Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and parts of Wyoming and Montana. …
