How did the Mexican cession influence the Civil War?

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In light of the delicate balance in Congress between the slave states and the wage-labor states, the acquisition of this land from Mexico re-kindled the debate in Congress over slavery. Southerners hoped to enlarge the territory that would enter the union as slave states. Anti-slavery northerners feared that very outcome. For that reason many northerners from both parties opposed the war with Mexico. The Mexican cession thus played a part in the nation's drift towards the Civil War.