ABSTRACT
There is a tendency to see the South as the threat to the scope of the federal government and the territorial integrity of the American Union. Looking only at the antebellum era, it is easy to see where this perception came from. Taking a longer view, however, makes it clear that threats to the scope of the federal government and to the territorial integrity of the American Union were not unique to the South and did not originate in the South. Challenges to the territorial reach of the federal government were and are a unique and seemingly permanent feature of the American Union.
