The Road to Secession
-
Upload
drake-banks -
Category
Documents
-
view
41 -
download
0
description
Transcript of The Road to Secession
![Page 1: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
The Road to SecessionAmerica’s Descent into Civil War
1850-1860
![Page 2: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
The Great Compromise of 1850
• California’s petition for admission as a free state precipitated a national crisis over the issue of slavery
• President Zachary Taylor (Whig-LA) proposed “popular sovereignty” as a way of avoiding a crisis – leave the decision on salve or free status to the states themselves
• Henry Clay (Whig-KY) proposed a five-part compromise:
• 1. California admitted as a free state
• 2. creation of New Mexico and Utah territories with no federal restrictions on slavery (new states to decide for themselves)
• 3. awarding of territory by Texas to New Mexico in exchange for federal assumption of Texas debts
• 4.abolition of the salve trade in the District of Columbia
• 5.a stronger fugitive slave law
![Page 3: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
The Compromise Raises Tensions
Henry Clay defending the compromise on the floor of the Senate, 1850
• Clay & Daniel Webster (Whig-MA) eloquently defended the compromise
• John C. Calhoun (Democrat – SC) condemned it and warned that it would lead to civil war within a decade
• All three “giants” of the Senate passed away within a year
• Stephen Douglas (D – IL) took up Clay’s cause and steered the compromise through Congress
![Page 4: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Who won the most from the Compromise of 1850 – North or South? How did Northerners and Southerners react to the Compromise of 1850?
![Page 5: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin Highlights the Evils of Slavery
• The stronger Fugitive Slave Act of 1851 angered many Northerners and encouraged more activity along the Underground Railroad, which provided slaves a means of escaping to freedom in Canada
• Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852 – the book became a bestseller and awoke Northern readers to the evils of slavery
• Stowe based the work on extensive research of slavery and slave conditions in the South
![Page 6: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
The Gadsden Purchase & Southern Expansionists
• In 1853, President Franklin Pierce’s administration negotiated the purchase of the southern strip of what is now Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico’s government for $10 million
• Secretary of War Jefferson Davis sought the purchase to encourage construction of a transcontinental railroad from New Orleans to southern California
• Southern expansionists went even further and demanded the annexation of Cuba and Central America to help America add more potential slave territory in North America and the Caribbean
• Three U.S. ambassadors to Europe formally called on the Pierce administration to annex Cuba in the Ostend Manifesto of 1854; encouraged Southern adventurism in Latin America
![Page 7: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
The Kansas-Nebraska Act
• In 1854, Stephen Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act to organize western territories and encourage settlement of the Plains
• His objective was to encourage westward expansion and pave the way for a transcontinental railroad that would connect Chicago with the Far West
• To avoid the issue of slavery, Douglas proposed that each territory be able to choose its own status through “popular sovereignty” – the idea was that Nebraska would likely want to be a free state and Kansas would vote to be a slave state
• The act further eroded the Missouri Compromise by opening up the possibility of slavery extending north of the “36 30” line
![Page 8: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
How would Northerners and Southerners have reacted to the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
![Page 9: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
“Bleeding Kansas”
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act created conflict in Kansas territory between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces
• Violence and bloodshed gripped the nation’s attention and foreshadowed the Civil War
• Rival governments emerged in Kansas and vied for recognition as the “legitimate” government
• Rep. Preston Brooks of SC caned Massachusetts Senator and abolitionist Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate – the “Bleeding Sumner” incident provoked outrage in the North
![Page 10: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
The Election of 1856
• The Whig Party disintegrated because of disagreements over the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the issue of slavery; many of its anti-slavery supporters gravitated to the new Republican Party (founded in 1854 in opposition to the Act)
• The Republicans promoted free-soil and the restriction of slavery’s expansion westward; they nominated famous general and “pathfinder” John C. Fremont as their first presidential candidate in 1856
• Other Whigs and some Democrats supported the “Know-Nothing” Party, which campaigned for restrictions on immigration and nominated former President Fillmore
• The Democrats united behind James Buchanan, a Northerner who was well liked by Southern Democrats because of his favorable positions on Bleeding Kansas and slavery
![Page 11: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
What were the results of the election? How would Southern Democrats react? How would northern Republicans react?
![Page 12: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
The Dred Scott v. Sandford Case• Dred Scott sued for his freedom, arguing that
his master had taken him to free territory for a time and that this made him a free man after his master’s death
• The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger Taney (a Southerner) argued that:
• 1. Dred Scott was a slave and could not sue in court because he had not citizenship rights (nor did any other black American)
• 2. The Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional because it had sought to limit slavery to a certain region; the Court argued that owning slaves was a property right that could not be restricted by any territory (or state!)
![Page 13: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, challenged Douglas for his Illinois Senate seat in 1858
• Their series of seven debates grabbed national media attention because the campaign focused on the issue of slavery and the Dred Scott decision
• Lincoln argued that slavery was morally wrong and should be limited if not ended altogether
• Douglas took the moderate position that slavery should be allowed where people wanted it (despite Dred Scott) but angered many Northerners and Southerners as a result
![Page 14: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry
• John Brown led a group of radicals who attempted to take over the Harper’s Ferry federal armory in October 1959 to prepare for an armed slave revolt
• The raid was unsuccessful and resulted in Brown’s capture and trial – he was hung on December 2, 1859
• Southerners suspected that Brown had been funded and encouraged by Northern abolitionists
• Was Brown a hero or a madman?
![Page 15: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
The Election of 1860
• Growing tensions over Bleeding Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, and Brown’s raid contributed to one of the most divisive national elections in American history
• The Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln to run as a moderate who appealed to free-soil and anti-slavery forces; he beat out the Republican front-runner, Senator William Seward of New York, who was considered too controversial
• The Democrats split over the issue of slavery – Southern Democrats rejected Stephen Douglas as too moderate on the issue of slavery and nominated John Breckinridge of Kentucky; Northern Democrats nominated Douglas
• More moderate Southerners, who wanted to preserve national unity, created the Constitutional Union Party and nominated John Bell of Tennessee
![Page 16: The Road to Secession](https://reader034.fdocuments.net/reader034/viewer/2022051516/56812bb7550346895d8ffa98/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Election results: Who won and why? Why did this election contribute directly to Southern secession?