(How America postponed settlement before the war)
Purpose:
Establish deferral as a national habit, not a temporary tactic.
Focus:
- Slavery as an economic and political system
- Constitutional ambiguity treated as stabilizing
- Compromise as postponement, not resolution
- Federal authority as conditional and negotiable
- Political calm purchased by deferring settlement
What this part removes from Reconstruction:
Practice at decisive institutional settlement.
Work area