"The great vice of the government is our violent party spirit; that vice which Washington foresaw, and against which his last warning was given; that which was the prominent evil of Rome, of Greece, of Holland, of all ancient and modern Republics, is our great calamity. This spirit of party, sordid, blind and selfish when carried to extremes, finds its choicest aliment in the local interests and sectional prejudices with which every country abounds. Those interests and prejudices necessarily increase with every extension of territory, and it is in this light that every great augmentation of the Union becomes formidable."-Source: Theodore Sedgwick, Thoughts on the Proposed Annexation of Texas to the United States, 1844The reference to "sectional prejudices" in the excerpt most directly refers to which of the following developments in politics during the mid-nineteenth century?

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