Section 15.3: Slavery Dominates Politics

Today’s Essential Question: How did slavery dominate national events after 1855?

Vocabulary • Republican Party – political party

formed in 1854 to oppose slavery• unconstitutional – illegal because it

violates the Constitution• arsenal – place where weapons are

stored

Check for Understanding• What is today’s Essential Question?• How have the goals of the Republican

Party changed over time?• What does it mean if the Supreme

Court declares a law unconstitutional?• Why would someone break into an

arsenal?

What We Already Know

Although the Whigs and Democrats were the two major political parties of the 1850s, there were other

parties as well, such as the Know-Nothings.

What We Already Know

After the failure of the Wilmot Proviso

to ban slavery in the Mexican Cession, the Free Soil Party was formed to stop the spread of slavery

into new territories.

What We Already Know

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

led to widespread

violence on the plains in 1854.

The Republican Party Forms

• Created out of the problems caused by the Kansas–Nebraska Act

• The Whig Party split; Northern Whigs joined Free Soilers and other slavery opponents

• Gained strength in the North as the Democrats were blamed for the violence in Kansas.

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What was the Republican Party’s main goal?

A. To end slavery everywhere in America

B. To return all blacks to AfricaC. To stop the spread of slavery

into the territoriesD. To bring Canada and Mexico

into the United States

17. What issues led to the creation of the Republican Party?

Choose all that are true!

17. What issues led to the creation of the Republican Party?

A. Northern Whigs leaving their party to join with other opponents of slavery

B. Opposition by James Buchanan to the Wilmot Proviso

C. The emergence of Abraham LincolnD. Problems caused by the Kansas

Nebraska ActChoose all that are true!

Republican Candidate John C. Frémont

• First Republican presidential nominee

• Young, handsome, national hero for his explorations in the West

• Favored admitting both California and Kansas as free states.

• Had no controversial record to defend.

The Election of 1856• Democrat nominee

James Buchanan had taken no stand on the Kansas–Nebraska Act.

• Buchanan said little about slavery; his goal was to maintain the Union.

• He appealed to Southerners, the border states, and Northerners who were fearful of a civil war.

The Election of 1856

• The Know-Nothing Party nominated former president Millard Fillmore (1850-53), but were divided over slavery.

The Election of 1856

Election results showed how strong the Republican Party was in the North, and that the nation was

sharply split over slavery.

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Which of the following was NOT a candidate in the 1856 presidential election?

A. Douglas of the Free Soil PartyB. Fremont of the Republican PartyC. Buchanan of the Democratic PartyD. Fillmore of the Know-Nothing Party

What did the election results in 1856 reveal?

A. Party differences were less sharply defined that in earlier elections.

B. The influence of the Republican Party was declining in the North.

C. The influence of the Democratic Party was declining in the South.

D. The nation was sharply split over slavery.

The Case of Dred Scott

• Dred Scott was a slave whose owner took him to live in free territories, then returned to Missouri, a slave state.

• After his owner’s death, Scott sued for his freedom, but the Supreme Court ruled against him.

Chief Justice Taney‘s Ruling

• As a Negro, Scott was not a U.S. citizen and could not sue in U.S courts.

• Slaveholders’ property rights were protected by the Fifth Amendment.

• Congress could not ban slavery anywhere, including the territories.

Chief Justice Roger Taney‘s Ruling

• This decision made the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.

• Southerners cheered the Court’s decision, while Many Northerners were outraged, but powerless.

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18. What was the Supreme Court ruling in the Dred Scott case?

Choose all that are true!

A. As a slave, Dred Scott was not a U.S. citizen.B. Only Congress could restrict the movement

of slaves into the territories.C. Dred Scott was no longer a slave.D. Slave-owners could take their slaves

everywhere, including free states and territories.

E. The Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional.

What consequences did the Dred Scott decision have for free blacks?

Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)

• The Dred Scott decision angered Republicans.

• They claimed that Democrats wanted to open up the whole country to slavery.

• They planned to use this argument to challenge Stephen Douglas and other Democrats in the 1858 elections.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)• Abraham Lincoln was

nominated by Illinois Republicans to run against Douglas for his U.S. Senate seat.

• In his first campaign speech, Lincoln expressed Republican fears that Democrats threatened to expand slavery across the whole country.

Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)Lincoln warned, “A house

divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half

slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be

dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the

other.”

Lincoln and Douglas Debates (1858)Lincoln called slavery was “a

moral, a social and a political wrong,” but did not suggest abolishing slavery

where it already existed, only that it

should not be expanded.

Douglas argued for popular sovereignty as the most democratic method to do

deal with slavery.

Both men believed in the superiority of whites over

Negroes.

• Lincoln: ‘I have no purpose to interfere with slavery in the states where it already exists. I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no desire to do so.’

• ‘I have no intention of introducing political and social equality between the races. Their differences make it impossible to for them ever to live together as equals, and therefore I am in favor of my race having the upper position.’

Lincoln and Douglas Debates (1858)

Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858)

• ‘But the Negro is just as entitled to the rights mentioned in the Declaration of Independence as the white man.’

• ‘The Negro is not my equal in color, and perhaps not in moral and intellectual development.’

• ‘But in the right to eat the bread his labor produces without asking anyone else’s permission, he is my equal, and the equal of Sen. Douglas, and the equal of every man .’

Lincoln and Douglas Debates (1858)

Douglas won reelection, but Lincoln became a national figure and a leader in the Republican Party.

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19. What was the main issue in the Lincoln–Douglas debates?

A. the Dred Scott rulingB. South Carolina's

decision to secedeC. slavery in the territoriesD. the trial of John Brown

In 1859, John Brown planned to capture the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and use its weapons to start a slave uprising across the

South.

John Brown Attacks Harpers Ferry

Brown’s group captured the arsenal, but no slaves

joined the fight.

John Brown Attacks Harpers Ferry

The U.S. Marines captured Brown and six others, and ten men were killed.

John Brown Attacks Harpers Ferry

In 1859, John Brown planned to capture the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and use its weapons to start a slave uprising

across the South.

Brown’s group captured the arsenal, but no slaves joined the fight.

The U.S. Marines captured Brown and six others were

captured, and ten men were killed.

John Brown Attacks Harpers Ferry

Brown was tried and convicted for murder and treason, and was hanged.

Reaction to John Brown and Harpers Ferry

• In the North, abolitionists mourned Brown’s death and called him a hero.

• Southerners were enraged by Brown’s actions and horrified by Northerners’ sympathetic reactions to his death.

• With the election of 1860 drawing near, the issue of slavery had raised sectional tensions to the breaking point.

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20. Why did John Brown attack the arsenal at Harpers Ferry?

Choose all that are true!

A. To seize the U.S. arsenal located thereB. To call public attention to "Bleeding

Kansas”C. To arm slaves with captured weaponsD. To start a slave uprisingE. To get weapons for South Carolina’s

militia

21. How did John Brown’s attack on Harper’s Ferry increase tensions

between the North and the South?

Choose all that are true!

A. Southerners were enraged by Brown's actions.

B. Northerners were horrified by Southern tributes honoring Brown.

C. Southerners were horrified by Northern tributes honoring Brown.

D. Some Northerners made a hero out of Brown for his actions against slavery.

E. Some Southerners praised Brown for his violence against abolitionists.