Slavery was THE great debate of the 1850's as was the question of continuing a union that threatened the lives and property of the South. It caused Lincoln's election in 1860 and fueled the movement to secession and war. Slavery was the dividing point over which there was a limit to the compromises that could be effected. It clearly drove the decade as it had shaped the whole century.
Isolationism was the policy that kept them from joining the League of Nations. Isolationism is when a group stays away from or ignores all people in that group. Mainly political matters of other countries.
He died circumnavigating the globe, finding a route to the orient.
